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  • Accidental Aesop:
    • Never underestimate the damage a prank can do. Not all damage is physical.
    • Considering how Emily can show remorse for treating Matt badly in the relationship after he called her out on her behaviour, and then proceeding to abandon her when the tower falls. The lesson appears to be "Being nice and sugar-coating your words won't always be the most effective strategy, sometimes you need to get angry for people to understand why and change for the better".
    • As Hannah's decision to move made the police unable to find them shows, unless you have a very good reason why you need to move like being still in the danger zone, stay where you are and wait for help. Moving around aimlessly without a clear destination when lost in remote areas just makes actual help harder to get to you.
    • Josh's experience with his doctors shows the dangers of being misdiagnosed. It is heavily implied that his more serious condition wasn't depression but schizophrenia, which explains his messed up psyche even before the deaths of his sisters.
  • Accidental Innuendo: Only if Emily survives nearly having her head blown off, and the rest of the night.
    Emily (referring to Mike's gun): He held it right up to my face... right here- right up to my nose!
  • Adorkable:
    • Mike has moments where his all-together, smug, suave demeanor can slip to this effect — try him trying to save face in front of Jess after being startled by an owl in the woods, or saying things like "fuck nuggets" to express frustration.
    • Josh is pretty goofy, as seen when he briefly imitates John Wayne or when he's around Sam.
    • Ash is doe eyed, bookish, overly jumpy, and occasionally sarcastic. Her response if she finds one the Psycho's cameras lying around the house?
    Ashley: Go suck an egg!
    • Some of Chris's moments with Ashley before their Relationship Upgrade, where he's clearly into her but too timid to make the first move.
    • Matt can be this at times, such as when he gets sheepish after Ashley gets annoyed at him for giving her a scare, as well as his attempts at being flirty with Emily when they go to try finding her bag in the DLC bonus for Chapter 2.
    • This is part of Jess's Lovable Alpha Bitch traits. Underneath her over-confidence and sexpot behavior, she's actually quite cheerful and acts like an excited little kid when alone with Mike in the woods.
    • Hannah's interactions with her crush Mike with her overall doe-eyed cute appearance screams this.
  • Aluminum Christmas Trees: A quite sizable portion of the fanbase seems to think Until Dawn invented the wendigo. In fact, it's actually a Native American legend that predates the development of the game by centuries, if not millennia, and has appeared in many other works of fiction before.
  • Angst Dissonance: Some players struggle to sympathize with Ashley due to her frightened and paranoid disposition, often labeling her as 'whiny' at best and 'cowardly' at the worst due to her actions regarding about refusing to rescue Chris should he decide to sacrifice her to save himself, or demand that Emily leave the safe room in fear of her bite wound being infectious. However, Ashley had been attacked and captured by a psychopathic killer twice, was placed in a death trap twice in a row, and may find herself being potentially sacrificed against her will twice by the choice of someone who she has a crush on, leaving her psyche likely damaged by the trauma she had been exposed to in a matter of hours. She may not have been exposed to the dangers of the Wendigo as early as other character such as Jessica and Mike, but she has been exposed to grave danger all the same by the hands of a mentally disturbed friend who could have easily and accidentally killed his victims if his cruel revenge prank went horribly wrong.
  • Angst? What Angst?:
    • Mike gets over possibly amputating two of his fingers really fast. A person would realistically panic or faint from the shock and sudden blood loss. Truth in Television though: people have endured much worse injuries without fainting or excessively panic, with Mike high on adrenaline to keep on moving. Perhaps how mentally unchanged he is afterward is a testament to his character.
    • If you keep Chris alive to the end, (which also means he and Ashley will have had a Relationship Upgrade), there are no scenarios in which he mentions Ashley at the interviews, which can be especially weird if she died.
  • Awesome Music: The original composition of the classic American folk song "O' Death" is gorgeously chilling, and really goes a long way to setting up the tone of the game during the title sequence.
  • Best Known for the Fanservice: While certainly not the only memorable moment of the game, Sam running around in a towel for an extended length of time is easily one of the most iconic scenes and likely to be the one scene people who haven't played the game have heard of.
  • Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
    • Why was there a wolverine in Josh's bathroom cupboard? It's a really out of place Jump Scare, never mentioned again after it runs out of the lodge, and no others are seen.
    • At one point while Jessica and Mike are walking to the cabin, Jessica mentions seeing someone there and Mike takes a look through some binoculars when suddenly a half-rotted Nightmare Face pops up in his view with a Scare Chord, which for some reason he doesn't mention. If Mike looks through the telescope again right after that and sees nothing of note, he flippantly says there's no one out there. It's as if that particular Jump Scare was only meant for the player, which comes off as rather weird. Mike does look away immediately after that with a worried look, and it could be that he thought he'd imagined it and didn't want to seem freaked out or thought he was being pranked by his mischievous girlfriend.
    • In a sense, the reveal that a wendigo can mimic a human can come off as this. It happens a total of one time in the entire game that we hear a wendigo call for help like a human, which might lead to Ashley's death if she falls for it, and never happens again afterwards. You also have to wonder how a wendigo is able to say words like "Help me" and "Please" when it doesn't have any lips.
  • Broken Base:
    • The whole second half of the story with the sudden appearance of the Wendigos has irked some who played this game. While some think that it's a clever plot twist that completely turns the game's plot on its head, other feel it undermines the consequences of Josh setting up the fake murderer prank out of a messed up way to cope with the deaths of his sisters and just turns the story into another generic horror plot. There's also a middle ground of people who agree that the twist makes the story into a generic horror plot that covers no new ground but appreciate the game as a love letter to the horror genre for that exact reason.
    • The scene where Emily smacks an apologetic Ashley for trying to have her kicked out of the safe room, in fear of Emily turning into a Wendigo, is divisive to many. Was Emily in the right to slap Ashley over her hysterics almost getting Emily killed? Or was she in the wrong due to Ashley being genuinely remorseful over her hysteria, and that Emily was taking her anger out on Ashley because of her ex-boyfriend Mike making his own irrational decision to shoot Emily instead of kicking her out as Ashley and the others (besides Sam) suggested?
  • Captain Obvious Reveal: It's fairly easy to guess at the identity of the "Mystery Man" for a number of reasons: He isn't available to be played before the reveal, has a motive for a grudge against the guests, and is responsible for splitting up the party and sending them to specific locations throughout the lodge. If all of those clues didn't tip you off, it's pretty easy to recognize actor Rami Malek's distinctive diction through the voice distortion.
  • Cliché Storm:
  • Designated Hero: Mike can comes across as this to some, as he is presented as a mostly heroic individual regardless of his actions in the story that make him appear less so. He was a major part in the prank that led to Beth's death and Hannah's disappearance. Mike is also singlehandedly responsible for Josh's demise by leaving him tied up in a shed by himself after falsely accusing him of murdering Jessica which gets him captured by a Wendigo and then either does nothing to prevent the Wendigo from killing Josh or he lets the Wendigo drag Josh deeper into the mines and then selfishly leaves him to die and expresses no regret for it afterwards. He also, of his own volition, points a gun at Emily out of fear of her turning into a Wendigo and can potentially kill her, with no one ever bringing this up later unless he does kill her.
  • Draco in Leather Pants:
    • Josh Washington is an interesting example since at worst he was a Disc-One Final Boss whose status as a villain is debatable. He never intended to hurt anyone and was only trying to make his friends suffer for the prank that led to Hannah running away and Beth following her to their misfortunes. He clearly is someone with serious mental issues off his medication. But his fans often downplay his many flaws and try to turn him into a helpless and innocent victim, or worse, try to romanticize him into a tragic Byronic Hero who just needs love from the right person, usually Sam, Chris, or an Original Character, to end his suffering. The prank he devised was definitely cruel and over the line and potentially could have traumatized his best friends Chris and Ashley for life. He even brutalized Sam, the one person who truly connected with him. Even though he did not know about the Wendigo, he led his friends back to the lodge under false pretenses, essentially bringing them to their doom if the player cannot save them, and any one of the people he didn't intend to kill could probably have sued him for assault, battery, and reckless endangerment at least. It's fairly easy to see why some fans would be less inclined to forgive.
    • Downplayed because she’s not a villain, but Emily falls under this trope as well. Many of her fans have a habit of ignoring or watering down all her negative traits (or viewing those traits as a reason for why she’s a strong independent woman), disregarding why it makes her hard to like and focusing more on her resourceful escape through the mines. Some fans also accuse those who don’t like her for the way she treats Matt, the way she antagonizes Jessica, the suggestion she is cheating with Mike, and her being jerky with an all-around unpleasant attitude. Some of Emily's fans also tends to be detractors of Ashley in turn, often using Ashley's overreaction to Emily's bite wound, and her refusal to rescue Chris if he shoots her to save himself as a justifiable reason to perceive her as a 'bigger bitch' than Emily, while ignoring how Emily is consistently portrayed as arrogant, selfish, and domineering, and having little justification for her own unpleasant behavior.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse:
    • Despite (or possibly due to) having a major lack of screentime, both Jessica and Matt are quite popular, with many fans disappointed that the two are sidelined for a majority of the game though they do have a short action sequence together. In the case of Jessica, being Mike's love interest doesn't hurt, her confessions of her insecurities flesh her out, and her overly done speech about having sex was downright hilarious; likewise, dating Emily often makes players view Matt far more sympathetically, and his (potential) helping of the injured Jessica through the mines.
    • Despite being a non-human NPC with a minimal role, Wolfie the wolf is really well liked by most players.
    • Flamethrower Guy for being a badass old guy, even if he dies in all versions of the game, shortly after he is fully introduced.
  • Evil Is Cool: Hannah as the Wendigo, for sure. Despite having some disadvantages, this terrifying monster is remarkably smart, fast, strong, agile, and can provide some gory yet creative kills. She's also somewhat tragic.
  • Fan Nickname: Hannah in her Wendigo form is called "Handigo" by fans.
  • Fanon:
    • While never confirmed in the game, it is commonly believed that the wendigo spirit that possessed Hannah was Makkapitew, who the Events of the Past video states is the wendigo that attacked Hannah and Beth and was killed right after the sisters fell from the cliff. It also explains why Wendigo Hannah is larger and stronger than all the other Wendigo in the cabin despite being much younger than them.
    • Less depressing than the above, there is what Beth was like before she dies in the opening chapter. She gets the least amount of development than any other character in the game, basically making her an O.C. Stand-in. Many fans interpret her as being The Unfavorite of the Washington children note  and this coupled with her acting as the more responsible of the three making her resent the others because of it. Many LGBT fans also headcanon her as a lesbian who had feelings for Sam, who depending on whether they also headcanon Sam as a lesbian, was either unrequited or not, adding an even more tragic element to Beth's death and Sam's reaction to finding out Hannah had to eat her to survive.
  • Fanon Discontinuity: A number of fans like to ignore Josh's only two canonical fates of either dying or becoming a wendigo to give the spoilered character a less bleak ending.
  • Fan-Preferred Couple:
    • Josh is popularly paired with either Sam or Chris, the latter despite Chris and Ashley's canonical mutual feelings and the Ship Tease between Josh and the aforementioned Sam.
    • Sam and Mike are also getting this despite Mike dating Jessica and Sam's undetermined feelings for Josh. A lot has to do with them essentially being the game's main leads who cannot die until the last chapter and who develop a mutual dependence on each other as the game progresses. Both of their relationship bars can be completely full for each other at the end.
    • Matt and Jessica get this treatment as well, as some fans think they deserve better than their current partners who may have been cheating on them with each other, and their last scenario can potentially be together, with Matt protecting and helping a badly injured Jessica, with a lot of concern for her.
    • In Les Yay circles, Jessica and Emily are pretty popular despite that their screentime together is being at each others throats.
    • Sam and Beth are also popular in Les Yay circles despite minimal interaction at all before Beth kicks the bucket.
  • Game-Breaker:
    • There's a very simple method of handling every "DON'T MOVE" section in the game. Disable controller vibrations in the PS4's menu, then before the "DON'T MOVE" prompt appears, put the controller on the table and just wait it out. Congratulations, you can now make Sam live through the final scenes without effort. Markiplier was able to do this for the final segment, though his grief over not being able to save Ashley (and not knowing of this method beforehand) caused him to replay the entire game, getting every totem and letting everyone live.
    • Favorite character just died? Quickly quit the game and try again! The only negative factor of these two game breakers is your ability to live with yourself for essentially cheating the game and robbing the suspense.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Josh's inevitable "death" during the Ashley vs. Josh decision that Chris is forced to make would have been revealed to have been staged, had Matt taken Emily's suggestion to go to the scene and confirm Chris and Ashley's story of his gruesome death instead of just taking their word for it. They would have noticed the fake Josh prop right away, thus immediately revealing Josh's role as the mastermind behind the whole thing, or at the very least making them suspicious of him.
      • There's also the fact that Josh's "death" is inevitable in the first place, once you learn that he was the one who set up the traps. Obviously he couldn't have had the decision behind it make any difference in the first place, since it would have actually killed Ashley. Given that he set up the traps and could have made one that wouldn't kill her either way, though (which he does later), this becomes an example of Special Effects Failure instead. He was so sure that Chris would choose to kill him instead of his crush, even though Josh is established as his best friend, that he doesn't even bother with a contingency plan.
    • Some of those sessions with Dr. Hill take on a whole new light when you know who he's talking to. For example, if you say the person you dislike the most is Josh, you're saying you hate yourself, to your hallucination of your psychiatrist, which puts Dr. Hill's comment about going easy on him in an entirely new light.
  • He Really Can Act: Voice act in this case but while everyone does a great job future Academy Award-winner Rami Malek stole the show as Josh due to his character having depth and being funny, disturbing and utterly tragic at the same time and this is way before his much more acclaimed turn as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Hollywood Homely: Hannah is a leggy, slender, beautiful teen girl who possesses a natural tan and has a sizable bust compared to her cohorts. She's seen as being quite plain In-Universe.
  • I Knew It!: More than one person correctly predicted that Josh was the mastermind and faked his death in the saw trap. Of course, turns out that he's not the real threat at all...
  • It Was His Sled:
    • Hannah and Beth aren't savable, regardless of the choices you make.
    • Josh is the Psycho, and he has nothing to do with the real danger of the game.
    • The Wendigos are the true antagonists of the game.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Despite (or maybe because of) being one of the few characters not to have an explicit Love Interest, Sam is probably involved in more ships than any other character. Being played by Hayden Panettiere probably helps too.
    • Sam/Josh is hinted at in canon, with the two sharing a few clearly affectionate conversations and Sam mentioning that they've grown very close in the year since the twins' disappearance. She's also one of the characters to take his betrayal the hardest, since she genuinely couldn't believe he'd torment her that way after the time they'd spent together. It's also seen by many fans as an opportunity to Pair the Spares alongside the canonical relationships of Mike/Jess, Emily/Matt, and Chris/Ash.
    • Sam/Mike is also popular, since despite the game's ensemble nature they emerge as the de facto lead characters. Their greater heroic efforts lead them to pair up and rely on each other ever more frequently towards the end-game, and they can quite easily end the game as each other's highest relationships, which of course fuels this considerably.
    • Sam/Hannah and (particularly) Sam/Beth both have quite a few fans, despite Sam having very few on-screen interactions with either of them:
      • Sam/Hannah is fuelled by the description of Sam as being Hannah's best friend, coupled with Sam being one of the few characters not to actively participate in pranking Hannah and showing genuine concern about her afterwards.
      • Sam/Beth shippers suggest that Beth and Sam initially bonded over their shared protectiveness of Hannah, and that something sub-textual could have developed between them from there. It surely helps that Beth receives the least characterisation of the whole group, to the point where it's possible to read any sexual orientation or romantic interest onto her. And unlike Sam/Hannah, Sam/Beth isn't sunk into one-sided tragedy by Hannah's obsession with Mike.
      • Supporters of both ships point to the ambiguity in Sam and Josh's relationship, which is not explicitly romantic, suggesting that it could just as easily be read as Sam being in love with one of the twins instead, and therefore the two people most affected by the twins' disappearance taking platonic comfort in each other's company.
  • Memetic Badass: Wolfie has become this to some people due to his constant offscreen teleportation.
  • Memetic Mutation:
    • Josh's Unusual Euphemism "Bone Zone" seems to be on its way to becoming this. Or really any of his Unusual Euphemisms, especially him declaring they "party like fucking porn stars."
    • "Climbing class," as Chris calls it.
    • Mike's "Jesus hot sauce Christmas cake" is also a very popular phrase.
    • As is Emily's "Understand the palm of my hand, bitch!"
    • "It was just a prank, Haaaaaaaaaaan!"
    • Due to some wiki vandalism, the fandom is now very well-versed in that "Matt's most notable feature is that he is shaped like a friend".
    • #theresafreakingghostafterus, Ashley's comment when she sees what she thinks is Hannah's ghost.
    • Thanks to Super_Sonic_Dan (a Twitch Streamer known for holding multiple speedrunning records under his belt for Until Dawn), "Fuck your bag Bitch!", referring to the scene involving Emily's overreaction to her missing bag, has become a bit of a meme, oftentimes used during some of her... bitchier moments in the game.
    • "Emily, bring me the axe". A Spanish Youtuber named Alexelcapo didn't react well at all at the moment where Matt takes the Idiot Ball and drops the axe when climbing the radio tower. He made, for the rest of the LP, a Running Gag of mentioning the axe moment at several times. Most notably, when he got fed up with Emily and decided to leave her to die (or so he thought) at the radio tower, he shouted as Emily fell "See you later, Emily! Look for the axe!". And finally, at the aforementioned moment of Ashley's #theresafreakingghostafterus hashtag, he answered with #emilytraemeelhacha (Spanish for #emilybringmetheaxe), which was even used as a real hashtag for a while.
    • It's become popular for (usually comedic) fanwork to have Josh still be conscious as a Wendigo and interact with the characters.
    • "BOOM! Butterfly Effect."
  • Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: It can't be a coincidence that one of only two playable characters absolutely guaranteed to survive until at least the final chapter - and the one who, provided you don't get her killed, is responsible for blowing up the wendigos - is played by the best-known member of the cast.
  • Never Live It Down: Chris's "climbing class" and Josh's "Can we order pizza?" lines get referenced in a lot of gag fan material.
  • Nightmare Retardant: The Wendigos' appearance is not as frightening as one might have expected. The lack of lips can be creepy, but part of their frightening aspect disappears when they're seen crawling around like clumsy spiders. And then there is Wendigo!Hannah walking around with underwear on.
  • Player Punch:
    • If you grew attached to any of the characters, prepare to have your heart ripped out if you don't manage to save them.
    • It goes double for anyone who grew fond of or sympathized with Josh, for not only is he revealed to be The Psycho, but also because he can't be saved. He either dies crushed by his own sister turned into a Wendigo, or is captured and turned into a Wendigo himself.
  • Retroactive Recognition:
    • That's Freddie Mercury and Safin who pranked his own friends out of revenge for the deaths of his sisters and have become a Wendigo in one ending.
    • Emily went on to ironically become Superstore's resident Asian Airhead Cheyenne.
  • Ron the Death Eater:
    • Ashley tends to get this from the fandom because of her overreaction to Emily's bite, resulting in her, Mike and/or Chris trying to kick Emily out of the safe house for fear of her turning into a Wendigo. Ashley's detractors tends to see her overreaction as her Moral Event Horizon, given how outing Emily's bite is what causes Mike to try and shoot Emily when she refuses to leave the safe room, while ignoring that Ashley only tries to get Emily to leave. It does not help that while Ashley can soon find out about the truth behind the Wendigo bite, Ashley is condemned despite trying to apologize to Emily, should Mike not shoot her and Ashley reveals the truth. There's also the detail from their Character Traits and Relationship Values revealing that Ashley does not support Mike shooting Emily, as it results in her relationship with Mike dropping to 0 if Emily is killed, whereas Mike gains an increase in Honesty and Funny if he does kill Emily.
    • Mike himself gets this from some players. While he starts out as an arrogant Jerk Jock, he shows throughout the game he genuinely cares about his friends and does some pretty risking things to try to save and protect them. His detractors however tend to overempathise his less favorable qualities and Unwitting Instigator of Doom moments. Such as his role in the prank on Hannah, ignoring that the bulk of his friends group were in on the prank as well. He can also, albeit at the players choice, express sympathy over what happened. Mike is also condemned for considering to shoot Emily when he thinks she's a Zombe Infectee (though if he does shoot her his traits seem to imply he enjoyed it possibly making this more justified), or leaving Josh in the mines despite having no feasible way to save him.
  • Rooting for the Empire:
    • Although it's far from a unanimous example, given how sympathetic the protagonists can be in ideal conditions, but some fans began retroactively rooting for Josh Washington when they realized that most of the game's plot was due to the other characters' mean-spirited prank.
    • This treatment can extend to the Wendigos as well, for those who dislike (or even flat-out hate) 62.5% of the protagonists for their Deadly Prank on Hannah in the prologue and thus wish to axe them off.
  • Sacred Cow: Or Sacred Wolf, in this case. Wolfie has a legendary status among the fandom, and any Youtuber will feel their wrath if they don’t manage to save him. Criticizing him in general is also not a wise thing to do in the fandom.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: The motion sensor in the PS4 controller is surprisingly sensitive, which makes the "hold still" quick-time events harder than they have to be. An errant twitch can result in failure. The fact that the final sequence of the game pretty much runs on these makes it all the more frustrating, as it can cost both Sam and Mike their lives, and any player too intimidated to try taking on several of these in a row and instead go for the switch will get Mike and potentially Emily and Ashley killed as well. Needless to say, many players are not fond of this aspect of the game. Fortunately, disabling the motion sensor is a workaround.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Already brewing between fans: Chris shippers go between himself and Ashley and Josh, while Sam shippers wrestle with herself and Josh or Mike.
  • Signature Scene:
    • Hannah and Beth's death. Which kicks off the main plot and is frequently shown in the “Previously On” segments.
    • Chris' Sadistic Choice between saving Ashley or Josh in Chapter 4. It’s the first ever major threatening moment to the cast, and it truly kicks the game’s plot into high gear from there on out.
    • Sam's encounter with the Psycho, played out like a typical horror movie chase scene. This segment was heavily shown in the trailers and was one of the segments shown for the demo release.
    • Josh being revealed as the Psycho. One of many revelations in the game, and a scene that allowed many to truly sympathize with Josh for the first time.
    • The reveal of the Wendigos in Chapter 8 and Emily's intense Chase Scene through and out of the mines. It’s the first sign that there is another threat besides Josh, and allows the game’s supernatural elements to fully come into play.
    • The choice in Chapter 8 of shooting Emily, or sparing her. This is only available if Emily was bitten earlier. One of the most controversial scenes in the game, this scene helped shape many people’s opinions of several different characters, and is most commonly brought up in character debates and discussions.
    • Mike facing off against The Wendigos in the Sanitorium in Chapter 9. Highly regarded as one of his best moments in the game, and many will claim that this scene won Mike over for them, as it fully showcases his Character Development and bravery.
    • In the final chapter, Sam facing the Wendigos in the lodge to buy time to save everyone. Mike performing a Heroic Sacrifice to kill the Wendigos also counts. Regarded as the most tense scene in the game by many, this scene is famous for being a scene in which many people experienced true anxiety of getting their favorites killed. It’s also a scene commonly brought up as people’s favorite.
    • The epilogue scene if Sam and Mike found Hannah's diary in the mines, showing Josh's mid-transformation into a Wendigo. One of the most bone-chilling scenes, it had fans speculating and wishing for an eventual Sequel Hook, as well as yet again turning people’s perspectives of certain characters on their heads.
  • Spiritual Licensee:
    • In addition to being an homage to every Slasher Movie and teen horror movie of the last forty years, the game bears a number of further similarities to The Cabin in the Woods once you look under the hood. Both stories revolve around a group of teenagers who fit into classic horror movie archetypes heading out to a cabin deep in the woods for a weekend of debauchery, and both groups are being manipulated to play out just such a horror movie scenario. (In Until Dawn, it's one of their own seeking to avenge the deaths of his sisters, and in The Cabin in the Woods, it's a Government Conspiracy carrying out a Human Sacrifice.) And both plans go flying Off the Rails by the third act.
    • It's also considered to be the best David Cage game that was, of course, not made by David Cage.
  • Stock Footage Failure:
    • Chris's death whether coming back after the Stranger dies, locked out of the house by Ashley, or falling for the Schmuck Bait in the mines has the same animation, and only the background is different. This is also true with Emily in the mines, or caught at the end by Wendigo Hannah.
    • If you pick being afraid of needles during one of Dr. Hill's sessions, Psycho!Josh will chase Sam with that instead of the sleeping gas. His animation while following her and knocking her out is still the same as if he was carrying the gas tank however, making it look rather odd why he would walk so slowly carrying a needle. Also, if he catches Sam and knocks her out, for a few seconds it will look like he's just sticking the needle into thin air.
  • Strangled by the Red String: Chris/Ashley is this for some people. Despite Galadriel Stineman's claims that they connect in a lot of ways, we know nothing about their relationship prior to the one-year anniversary apart from "they both secretly have a random crush on each other". Also, if Chris tries to shoot Ashley after she literally begs him to, she purposely leaves him to die. And if Chris survives but Ashley somehow doesn't, he doesn't even mention her or ask where she is or if she's okay in the end credits.
  • That One Level: The very end of the game, facing The Wendigos and Wendigo Hannah in the lodge, ESPECIALLY if you are trying to get everybody out alive. Notice the above Scrappy Mechanic? Well prepare for 5 of them back-to-back where Wendigo Hannah is stalking Sam through the lodge, each of which can kill either Sam and/or Mike upon failure and, if you fail the first two, have the potential to kill Sam, Mike, Emily and Ashley all at once. If you want to get everybody out of the lodge alive, you need to have perfect co-ordination, make all the right choices and need to remain perfectly still. Oh and if you make the wrong choices during this section? Sam inadvertently kills Mike and potentially Emily and Ashley. Suffice it to say that, without employing any of the Game Breakers above, this section can make or break trophy runs.
  • Theiss Titillation Theory: Sam's Modesty Towel manages to stay on her even while she's running away from the killer, despite the fact that it probably would have fallen off in real life. Some players might be disappointed but this is a survival horror game, not a sexy one.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • The Stranger. He has been hunting the Wendigos his entire life, clearly knows everything about them, and is very much a badass. Despite his cynical mentality, he shows some degree of morality, such as attempting to save the twins and providing exposition to the Lodge survivors. It's implied the reason why he hunts Wendigos is because his grandfather also hunted them, but was killed by the fiercest. Many players wish that he could be saved in some way. It's not helped that once he gets face time, he's only around long enough to explain everything about Wendigos that isn't already in his notebook and despite an entire life of hunting them by himself he dies in one hit the moment his exposition isn't needed anymore.
    • Some players felt Beth Washington would've been an interesting character to play as well and it could've been interested to see her survive. Beth only able to be saved by the Stranger if she drops Hannah, her resulting Survivor's Guilt over Hannah, and how she would have treated her friends who caused the situation would have made for an interesting plot, as would how she figured into the main plot and Josh's Sanity Slippage - if he even went off the rails with Beth still there. Hannah can be Killed Off for Real and the asylum wendigos still accidentally released to pose a threat to the characters, or Hannah could still turn into a wendigo and encounter Beth in this form by finding Makkapitew's lair and eating leftover human flesh or even committing Autocannibalism. Unfortunately, the character dies no matter what after the brief badassery she exhibits and ultimately only serves to provide Hannah with flesh readily available to eat without any of her choices having any impact on the outcome of the game.
    • Makkapitew, despite being referred to as the most dangerous Wendigo, doesn't ever have a chance to show this, regardless of whether it possessed Hannah or not.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
    • Fans of Jess and/or Emily were disappointed that their subplot about their broken friendship is never brought up again after their almost cat fight in the cabin. Especially considering that if Jess survives her initial encounter with the Wendigo, she is around the same spot in the mines where both Matt and Emily fell from the fire tower, yet Matt is the only one who can find her. Similarly, if Jess and Matt are traveling the mines, they will not encounter Josh, Mike, or Sam when the latter three enter or exit the mines to return to the lodge, keeping the two wholly cut off from the other characters and the main storyline and resulting in them being Out of Focus, not even reuniting with their significant others.
    • For all that the game is about "the Butterfly Effect", the very first lethal decision you take with Beth choosing to either let go off Hannah to try to save herself or not let go of her, turns out to not have affected Hannah at all. When you eventually learn that Hannah survived, succumbed to cannibalism and ate the dead Beth, said decision by Beth could have led to Hannah feeling betrayed by her sister and how that could change how she thinks of the prospect of eating her, depending on the choice you made. Instead, Hannah's notes have her talk dearly of her sister regardless of Beth's decision.
    • The game's main conceit of the Butterfly Effect as a whole is not nearly as impactful as the game claims, as the player's actions mostly determine which characters live and how sympathetic they are. Beth dies and Hannah turns into a wendigo regardless of the player's actions as Beth in the prologue, Jessica and Matt are Out of Focus and confined to brief escape scenes separate from the rest of the group even if they survive so they still have as little bearing on the main plot as if they'd been killed, Josh carries out his revenge plot on the same friends no matter what the player picks for his feelings towards his individual friends in the Dr. Hill segments, the Stranger gets quickly killed off so he can't help the teenagers too much (or keep them from grabbing the Idiot Ball, setting up the potential conflict with Emily's bite wound), and Sam, Mike, and Josh have Plot Armor that keeps them perfectly safe until Chapter 10, with the wendigos defeated regardless of how the player did in the final act. Having the Stranger really be a murderer forcing the player to make Sadistic Choices through and about the characters as teased in the first part of the game would have been an extremely effective and horrifying video game concept, especially if the Dr. Hill sessions similarly influenced gameplay, say by determining which characters are put into horrifying situations based on how the player said they liked or disliked them.
    • The idea of there being multiple supernatural threats besieging the lodge was an interesting concept which was ultimately revealed to be all part of Josh's master plan to revenge prank his friends. But imagine if it wasn't, or at least not all of them. There's already some evidence to the theory that the lodge is indeed haunted when a female ghost appears behind the player characters that Josh would have no reason to rig up as it's behind his targets. It would work to the game's strengths and give the characters even more to do than just stand around or run from wendigos.
  • Too Bleak, Stopped Caring:
    • Most of the characters (save for Josh, Sam, and Chris) are the main cause of Hannah and Beth's disappearance and their deaths ( or rather, Beth died and Hannah became a Wendigo) due to a thoughtless prank against Hannah in the prologue. With this knowledge in mind, it can be hard to feel sorry for the cast's plight as they find themselves in danger or killed upon being attacked by a psychotic killer and the Wendigos, including what used to be Hannah, their old friend. Then again, considering the main theme of the game, this is possibly an intentional choice made by the creators.
    • The player can downplay or even avert this trope if they pick the moral and friendly choices. Then the playable cast are instead flawed but fundamentally decent folks, who deeply regret their past mistakes and bad behaviour. The nature of the game also allows them to be complete Jerkasses. Matt can be played as an It's All About Me Jerkass who abandons others to die horrible deaths to save himself, Ashley can be played as a massive Bitch in Sheep's Clothing and a Woman Scorned who turns into a murderer, Emily and Jessica can both be played as utterly unrepentant alpha bitches, and Josh is easy to interpret as a borderline psychopath. Sam, Mike, and Chris are the only characters where it's difficult to completely downplay their positive traits, but even then, Mike's Jerk Jock tendencies can be played up while his Jerk with a Heart of Gold aspects can be downplayed (not to mention he can murder Emily out of paranoia during a minor Freak Out), Chris can attempt to shoot and kill Ashley to save himself, and Sam can abandon others to die towards the end of the game.
  • Too Cool to Live: The Stranger. When he is first introduced, he is simply a red herring for the first antagonist, but once he is formally introduced to the main characters, he is nothing short of a badass. He is a flame thrower wielding hermit who has lived in the mountains for years, studying and defending himself against the Wendigo and finding ways to destroy them for good. He helps out the survivors and tells them about the Wendigo and how they work, but sadly ends up getting cheaply killed by one not long after. The worst part is that he cannot be saved regardless of your actions.
  • Unintentionally Unsympathetic:
    • Hannah is portrayed as a sweet and naïve girl who is the victim of a cruel prank. The issue with that is that she openly pines after her friend's boyfriend (to the point of having a Stalker Shrine of him and getting a tattoo because she wanted to impress him), and she jumps at the chance to get together with him behind Emily's back. Then, after she's humiliated by an admittedly cruel prank, she runs out into a snowstorm like an idiot instead of, say, going elsewhere in the (huge!) cabin to get away from the others. While the group certainly would have done better to tell her off for her behavior instead of pranking her like that, it's hard to see her as entirely undeserving of it (at least, until the poor girl falls off a cliff).
    • Depending on the player's view, as listed on Broken Base, either Ashley or Emily can be seen as this during the aftermath of Emily's bite being discovered:
      • Ashley, after she demands that Emily be thrown out of the safe-room upon discovering the bite. In the event that Emily survives, should Mike choose to not shoot her dead, she gives Ashley a slap if she comes clean about her mistake. Sam then tries to excuse her by saying Ashley was scared. But Emily was also scared due to almost being shot to death for nothing by Mike over a bite that would never have turned Emily into a Wendigo.
      • While Emily is right to be angry at Ashley and Mike for their overreaction to the bite wound, she can instead come across as this due to some finding Emily's continuously entitled and abrasive attitude overstaying its welcome, especially considering how controversial her actions are towards Matt beforehand and during the credits scenes, and seeing her outburst here as yet another tirade to put up with. It doesn't help that Emily ignores that Ashley only wanted her out of the safe-room and didn't approve of Mike pointing a gun at Emily's head, and Emily in the finale will shove Ashley to the approaching Wendigo out of spite even after having already smacked her for owing up to her mistake, making Emily look unreasonably vindictive.
  • Waggle: The original incarnation of the game revolved heavily around the PlayStation Move motion control system. While that's been dropped, you still control where characters point their flashlights by moving the controller.
  • The Woobie: Several people.
    • Hannah. She has a crush on Mike, which Jessica and Emily takes advantage of by formulating a plan by inviting Mike, Matt, and Ashley along to trick Hannah into having a romantic time with Mike, and humiliate her by catching her on the act and recording her embarrassment. This causes Hannah to run off into the woods in shame, which ends up getting herself and her twin sister killed after they both get ambushed by a monster and fall off a cliff in a panic. As it turns out, Hannah survives the fall and finds herself trapped in the depths of the mines with her dead twin sister, and remains trapped for a full month with a broken leg, hungry, scared, and with no-one to help her. Eventually she gives into the temptation of eating the remains of her sister in order to save herself from death by starvation, only to slowly transform into a Wendigo, and thus remain as a Wendigo for the next eleven months, forced to continue eating human remains to stay alive. Even if she was willing to cheat with a taken man, she didn't deserve that.
    • Chris. Big time. Even before a serial killer starts targeting the group, his best friend Josh is (understandably) an emotional wreck since the deaths of Hannah and Beth, leaving Chris incredibly worried about his well-being and doing his best to support him. When the killer targets him, Chris goes through absolute hell. Chris is forced to make two incredibly sadistic choices throughout the game. First, he's required to choose who to kill between Josh, his childhood best friend, and Ashley, the girl he has a crush on. Though, no matter what he tries to choose, he'll be forced to watch his childhood friend die an incredibly grisly and brutal "death" and blame himself for it over several hours. Then, shortly after that, he and his crush are locked in a basement and Chris is again forced to make a choice to either shoot and kill himself or Ashley so that the other lives. It turns out that these both are actually pranks played by Josh, who wanted revenge for the prank the group played on Hannah last year, a prank Chris actually didn't participate with. The guy is clearly distraught and torn about the state of his best friend. It only gets worse from there. Later on, when Josh is at risk of being killed by a Wendigo, Chris volunteers to risk his life out of a sense of guilt for leaving the guy outside in the shed. This will always play out with him being too late to save Josh and with the stranger who saved his life dying, leaving Chris feeling an incredible amount of guilt. If Chris chooses to save himself instead of Ashley, she'll murder him in cold blood at this point by locking him out of the cabin and letting a Wendigo rip his head off despite his pleas. If Chris performed a Heroic Sacrifice to save Ashley instead, the two receive a Relationship Upgrade and Ashley will let him in.... only to potentially die a horrible death later on. If Chris finds her hat and blood (all that the Wendigo leaves behind), the poor guy starts sobbing and completely suffers a Heroic BSoD, having lost his best friend and now his brand new girlfriend. Should he survive the rest of the night, Chris' police interviews will just feature him completely distraught over the events, utterly crushed on an emotional level, and a strong implication that he partially blames himself for the fates of Josh, Ashley, and the stranger who saved him. And then his best friend can end up either being killed by a Wendigo or is turned into one himself after being left behind without him even realizing it. One can imagine his reaction to it when he finds out.
    • Sam. Unlike every other character (sans Josh and Chris), she didn't take any part on the prank that led to the accidental deaths of Hannah and Beth, and she was the only one who was required to feel visibly upset about their deaths before shit starts hitting the fan. What does she get in return for her kindness and consideration? Being pranked by arguably her best friend (who she's implied to have feelings for) and getting traumatized over the events of that night. And then her best friend and crush ends up either dying or turned into a Wendigo himself and she doesn't even know about it.

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