Not Tropeworthy: Hell Is That Noise

This page as is, is useless to a website about story telling tropes and it is a shame because it reads like a logical story telling convention.

- While staking her tent Alice hears a low gurgling. Looking around in surprise, not expecting it nor seeing a source her eyes meet Bob's, whose expression seems to indicate he is familiar with it. So she naturally asks "What the hell is that noise?" Bob breathes out heavily before answering "Hell is that noise." then removes a machete from his belt. — Having been through an ordeal with giant, voracious, omnivorous worms the sound that Alice used to think nothing of now immediately puts her on defense and for that matter, so do sounds that are merely similar to it that she used to associate with good things.

It works not just for character purposes. The audience hears the chiming of bells as the wind sweeps through a rural area, excepting to see a hanging chime at most and really do not think of it as anything more than an effect to set the mood. Then they learn the "chime" is actually a far off echoes of a much more malevolent mechanism and now except to see something bad every time they hear it.

It does not even need narrative purposes. You are playing a Gotta Catch 'Em All collectathon platform game, have gotten used to the controls and the ways the hazards tend to come at you. This new area is slightly harder than the last one but you appreciate the challenge, love the scenery and think the accompanying music is incredible, especially how it just blended an accordion to the...and then your character is torn to pieces by Irish wolf hounds. Eventually the slightest hint of accordion music immediately causes your finger to hit the tear gas button and look for the nearest exit.

This page should be about all of those tropes, not about audience opinions. This is very much an objective occurrence in works and I am pretty sure you all know some examples. Such as when Hey, It's That Sound! from Bosconian becomes wait that means bad things in Geometry Wars.

So you want to hijack the name for an objective trope?

Hell, no. It is dialog. The troper Cider is looking for would be Ominous Noise.

Well it is only strictly dialog in one out of four given examples, three being hypothetical and the other being actual. I think I got the gurgling worm thing from a Goosebumps book or something though.

Audio Erotica is a valid trope so I do not see what the problem here is. If we must rename it so be it.

So you want to restrict this to In-Universe examples?

Also, Eddie was referring to the name of Hell Is That Noise I think.

I think we can make an in-universe trope only with a better title that describe noises that are ominous and serve to freak characters out.

However, I'm not sure if it would be worth using this trope as basis, given that it would require rewriting and moving thousands of wicks.

edited 23rd Feb '13 5:54:55 AM by Catbert

I am going to give a provisional thumbs-down, since "it's not a trope, it's an Audience Reaction" isn't enough to change something.

You could do something that is a Character Reaction instead of an Audience Reaction. That would make it a trope.

I know that. Still not enough of a reason. Someone will have to check wicks (there are 1219 of them - not a trivial cleanup) and examples, and that takes time and work.

As an alternative to renaming/redefining this page, we can keep the page as is, and someone can simply take an in-universe version of this to YKTTW, and if they feel like it, they can search the examples for in-universe stuff mislabeled as an audience reaction, which can be moved to the new page.

edited 23rd Feb '13 6:02:20 AM by Catbert

That is not completely objectionable - we have some of these splits already and they are listed on In-Universe among others.

So Project:Long term cleanup? I have cleaned 1000 links before...not that I am proud of that but this really makes more sense as a trope. Most Annoying Sound is already an audience reaction and this page always had the frame work of a literary device, as well as a game design and distinguishes itself from actual tropes in its use.

Then all of the sudden contrasts with awesome music and most wonderful sound sure, but at the time those were on the "main trope" tab too and the crowning moment stuff were a little more obvious with there subjective nature in the description and much more of a lost cause besides.

But at least they have a place on the Sugar Wiki. "I think this noise becomes foreboding once you realize it is associated with ____" has no place on anywhere. It has too much criteria for Your Mileage May Vary, even if you do not have "feelings" about it if you realize the association sounds have to the Predator's presence and that bad things happen on screen when it is present you have an objective occurrence either way. It does not belong on Sugar Wiki, it is a little to integral to plot events to be trivia, it is not funny enough for the Darth Wiki the only place logically left for this thing is with the rest of the tropes. This is a trope.

Long Term cleanup needs a lot more than 1000 wicks. Also, @7

Well seven simply says wanting to get rid of an audience reaction for the sake of being an audience reaction is not good enough. Okay fine, but the argument here is this is really a trope that is only has the Your Mileage May Vary banner due to poor curating or some kind of blanket sweep if not both.

What is being described on the page description is clearly a tropes, not an opinion audiences have. Let us look at some examples.

Adverting

• Don't wake up before the king. Clearly framed as a mock horror picture.

Animanga

• Song that plays as bad things happen in Neon Genesis Evangelion

Film

• Vader Breath, associated with the most active villain

Literature

• Using mundane sounds which eventually have negative connotations

Live Action TV

• Reoccurring jump scare sound on Are You Afraid of the Dark to the point it was played in cases of simple suspicion

Music

• A reoccurring sound in Pig Destroyer songs who apparently make brutal songs to begin with.

Videogames

• Critical Annoyance
  • Or if you skipped that
• Villain's voice again

Western Animation

• A bunch of noises preceding incidents or during incidents in Courage The Cowardly Dog

Now there are some objective opinions raised such as "genuinely disturbing" but each and everyone of these is a case of using a sound to signal a something unpleasant in the story(or game) itself and that is not subjective. This is a trope and should not have the subjective banner. Making a separate page would just be a page with most of the examples already here.

• Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth: Objective occurrence, no opinions
• AD Of Win: Reference to the page, no opinions
• Adventure Time: All referencing events, most do not have opinions attached
• Afraid of Monsters: Very opinionated but still has sounds connected to negative events
• Age of Empires: Unfavorable situation, no opinions
• Aladdin: Troper opinion, if this stays subjective it should be removed as it is a redundant pothole considering the page it is already on
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Sound an enemy makes
• Nothing Is Scarier: A mixed bag, some are associations with something bad, others are just opinions and other still are for the mood(intentional but not what the page describes)
• Alan Wake: Signal to the player, not an opinion
• Albion: Another pothole made redundant by Nightmare Fuel if the page is left subjective. As stands, it is about an enemy insect so it still objectively signals something bad
• Alice: Madness Returns: Sound caused when the player messes up, objective
• Alien: Reoccurring sounds in important scenes borrowed from earlier movies and borrowed by later ones, not an opinion
• Alien vs. Predator: Sound of a dangerous enemy, cue to the player
• Noroi: The Curse: Describing an occurrence in the film, not an opinion
• Notable Original Music: Putting an enemy sound in a song to get a reaction, not an opinion
• A Little Something We Call "Rock and Roll": Subversion the character associates a sound with an enemy but it turns out to be something unrelated, not an opinion
• All of Our Friends Are Dead: No content example, most likely an atmospheric effect
• No Rest for the Wicked: The troper notes you may or may not find it scary so that is an opinion, the author used it for horror though so it is still objective
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Using noise to indicate something bad is happening, not an opinion.
• Altitude: Unfamiliar sound revealed to come from a potentially dangerous creature, not an opinion even if whether the troper actually finds it scary or not is.
• Noisia: Invoked Trope, speaks for itself
• Noise Rock: The whole point is making annoying sounds but that may not line up with what this page intended
• American Horror Story: Pure opinion
• Alundra: Associated with a deadly situation
• Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: Signifying a dangerous situation
• Nitrome: Using real world sounds that already have negative connotations

So, from that sample it seems the majority of the links to the page are of objective occurrences

edited 23rd Feb '13 9:22:38 AM by Cider

Not really arguing one way or another, but you can make the same case for Most Wonderful Sound. That's a sound that's meant to evoke feelings of joy or accomplishment.

edited 7th Apr '17 7:11:22 AM by AnotherDuck

The examples there look a lot more subjective to me.

Explain the cases or even just one case where you disagree with me then.

I was talking about Most Wonderful Sound.

Guess I need to stop using pronouns...

I wasn't going by the examples, but by the definition. Though I would assume that a trope about gushing would have more examples than one you'd be more wary to touch.

Personally, I think the root problem with the trope is that it's too easily confused with Most Annoying Sound.

Most Annoying Sound is annoying. This one is more akin to horrifying.

I know that. But I've seen multiple wicks to Hell Is That Noise that ought to be using Most Annoying Sound instead.

I have no problems with something being examples of both.

Okay, since there has been no further protest I continue on with the motion to transfer Hell Is That Noise to the main space as a trope. So are we okay with the title or must that be changed? Does anyone have any alternatives to Ominous Noise?

The Sound Of Hell? Frightful Conditioning? Hellish Association?