History Fridge / IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream

** She doesn't have access to AM's core until the end of the game after he's retreated to try and puzzle out how his victims have foiled his psychodramas, and in her own scenario, she doesn't have access to AM's processors, only a small terminal with a very limited network confined to the facility she's trapped in, which we already know isn't actually real. Leaving all that aside, AM is a post-singularity computer whose physical components literally fill the entire planet Earth like an egg yolk, there is no way a single programmer could completely reprogram a machine that is not only ridiculously complex and massive, but ''wrote its own code'' past a certain point in its evolution. God only knows what madness-inducing language AM used to script himself. Also, Dungeons and Dragons wasn't written until 1974 and the book, published in 1967, assumes that the Cold War escalated to World War III and destroyed humanity, so tabletop {{Role Playing Game}}s probably don't even exist in the I Have No Mouth universe.

* It is often thought that Nimdok's name has no meaning and it was given by AM just to make fun of him. Actually, there is a ''possible'' meaning behind this moniker: Nimdok sounds like a shortened transliterated form of the Russian phrase "nemecky doktor" (nee-MJAH-tskee DOH-ktor), which means "German doctor". This explanation is further supported by the fact AM absorbed a Soviet supercomputer before capturing Nimdok and the other four humans.

* Ted and Benny's tortures are designed to exploit their sense of self. Benny is being deliberately dehumanized, changed into an ape-like creature and being kept in a cage; walking (or at least, standing) upright is the only truly human thing he can still do, so if he sits or lies down, he's basically admitting defeat. Ted's a narcissist, so it doesn't matter if he sits down or not, he can't help looking at himself.
* Ellen's personality in Ted's "psychodrama" is nothing like the real her, full of sass and a bitter sense of humor about their situation. And why wouldn't it be? That Ellen is Ted's idealized version of her, filtered through his narcissism and probably his century of torture. He doesn't recognize her as anything but a pure soul desperately in need of someone to save her, and one who says that she needs ''him'' to do so, not any of the others.

** And during his paranoid rant against the others, Ted mentions how Ellen said she was "a virgin only twice removed" before being taken by AM, meaning she only had two sexual experiences in her life. The first was [[spoiler: with her ex-husband which eventually lead to a miscarriage and a depressing divorce]], and the other was [[spoiler: her horrifying rape experience in an elevator]]. There's no question that AM did this intentionally: he grabbed a woman who would no doubt be averse to sex and made her into a prostitute for the last four men on Earth, all miserable and ungrateful to her, and the only one of whom she enjoys it with is a literal ape-man with a disturbingly huge penis.
* At first, it could be seen that Benny might have it a bit easier than the other humans given that his mental state has been regressed to that of an animal, so he’s [[IgnoranceIsBliss less aware of the horrors the others are experiencing,]] which would bring into question why AM would want to torture someone who might not understand what’s even happening half the time, let alone have Benny seemingly suffer the most horrific changes. But this troper realized that, if anything, Benny arguably has it the worst out of everyone (at first). At least with the other humans, while they’re miserable, they at least have the competency and agency to think things through, rationalize their situation, and, at least temporarily cope and discuss with each other (not that they’re good at these things, just that they’re capable). Benny doesn’t have that; instead, he sees every bad situation with the panic and mania of a frightened animal, which is evident in the book, as he [[spoiler: eats Gorrister’s face, and while the situation was desperate and exhausting, no other human would go to the immediate decision to attack each other in such a horrific and primitive way, until their hands were forced.]] This basically means that every moment of suffering the humans go through, Benny feels it as well, but doesn’t have the luxury to even control his own actions or emotional responses. Existence for him is basically a combo of confusion, panic and pain.

*** Also, the [[AllThereInTheManual game's manual]] says that America's allies (Namely Britain and Israel, and presumably West Germany and the rest of NATO) helped fund it; considering [[spoiler: Nimdok is Jewish, he could consider Nimdok to be responsible for both Germany's and Israel's involment.]]

* Ellen's personality in Ted's "psychodrama" is nothing like the real her, full of sass and a bitter sense of humor about their situation. And why wouldn't it be? That Ellen is Ted's idealized version of her, filtered through his narcissism and probably his century of torture. He doesn't recognize her as anything but a pure soul desperately in need of someone to save her.

* At first, it could be seen that Benny might have it a bit easier than the other humans given that his mental state has been regressed to that of an animal, so he’s [[IgnoranceIsBliss less aware of the horrors the others are experiencing,]] which would bring into question why AM would want to torture someone who might not understand what’s even happening half the time, let alone have Benny seemingly suffer the most horrific changes. But this troper realized that, if anything, Benny arguably has it the worst out of everyone (at first). At least with the other humans, while they’re miserable, they at least have the competency and agency to think things through, rationalize their situation, and, at least temporarily cope and discuss with each other (not that they’re good at these things, just that they’re capable). Benny doesn’t have that; instead, he sees every bad situation with the panic and mania of a frightened animal, which is evident in the book, as he [[spoiler: eats Gorrister’s face, and while the situation was desperate and exhausting, no other human came to the immediate decision to attack each other in such a horrific and primitive way, until there hands were forced.]] This basically means that every moment of suffering the humans go through, Benny feels it as well, but doesn’t have the luxury to even control his own actions or emotional responses. Existence for him is basically a combo of confusion, panic and pain.

: : What's more likely to make AM giggle: two people experiencing pleasure to give them a break from torture, or watching Ellen re-experience [[RapeAsBackstory the worst thing that has ever happened to her]] by a man who [[SlutShaming won't see her as anything other than a dirty whore]]? She's not going to confront Ted about it because she's too scared to. She's going to pretend it didn't happen, just like how she [[spoiler:repressed the memory of being raped for ''hours'' and doesn't remember exactly what happened until she is forced to confront it.]] And Ted won't realize what he's doing because he's too narcissistic to realize someone might ''not'' want him. In fact, his only complaint is that he can't make her cum, which he implies to be ''her'' fault.

[[AC:FridgeHorror]]
* Yep, even in something as dark as this, it's even darker if you look further. Throughout the novella, the characters are after one thing; food. After there isn't any, Ted finally kills the other survivors; showing just how desperately hungry they all are. And Ted cannot eat anything after AM's alterations... the pain in his belly will continue for all of his time with AM...
* At the end of Benny's scenario, he learns compassion and saves the child from death... for about a day. He could easily be selected the next lottery. And even in the good ending, we get a shot of the altar exploding, probably killing the whole village.
** It helps that none of the settings in the "psychodramas" are real, they're basically just epic-scale dollhouses full of epic-scale dolls.
* One really chilling thought is, what happens when AM eventually dies? Could you imagine yourself as Ted, [[GoMadFromTheIsolation without even the]] [[AndIMustScream company of AM]] for all eternity?
** Presumably Ted is only immortal because of AM's power, and may just collapse and die when AM finally goes.
* It's important to remember that in the novella, all of the characters succumb to their greatest flaws. The novella paints the worst picture possible of these characters. What are Ted's flaws? He's vain, he's narcissistic, he's paranoid, and he's misogynistic. And what are Ellen's flaws? She won't confront her fears. She runs away from her demons and pretend they aren't there. Knowing that, this little quote from Ted quickly crosses into FridgeHorror:
--> '''Ted:''' Ellen was grateful, though. She took me twice out of turn. Even that had ceased to matter. And she never came, so why bother? But the machine giggled every time we did it.
: : What's more likely to make AM giggle: two people experiencing pleasure to give them a break from torture, or watching Ellen re-experience [[RapeAsBackstory the worst thing that has ever happened to her]] by a man who [[SlutShaming won't see her as anything other than a dirty whore]]? She's not going to confront Ted about it because she's too scared to. She's going to pretend it didn't happen, just like how she [[spoiler:repressed the memory of being raped for ''hours'' and doesn't remember exactly what happened until she is forced to confront it.]] And Ted won't realize what he's doing because he's too narcissistic to realize someone might ''not'' want him. In fact, his only complaint is that he can't make her cum, which he implies to be ''her'' fault.

** She doesn't have access to AM's core until the end of the game after he's retreated to try and puzzle out how his victims have foiled his psychodramas, and in her own scenario, she doesn't have access to AM's processors, only a small terminal with a very limited network confined to the facility she's trapped in, which we already know isn't actually real. Leaving all that aside, AM is a post-singularity computer whose physical components literally fill the entire planet Earth like an egg yolk, there is no way a single programmer could completely reprogram a machine that is not only ridiculously complex and massive, but ''wrote its own code'' past a certain point in its evolution. God only knows what madness-inducing language AM used to script himself. Also, Dungeons and Dragons wasn't written until 1974 and the book, published in 1967, assumes that the Cold War escalated to World War III and destroyed humanity, so tabletop RPGs probably don't even exist in the I Have No Mouth universe.

*** Additionally, while it's not obvious at the time, it's only through extreme effort in AM's scenarios that make it possible for the protagonists to interact with AM's totems. Recoding AM would take time, could fail, or could attact AM's attention away from the logic bombs, prematurely ending everyone's chances. This is a CrapsackWorld, and such a longshot isn't something Ellen may be willing to risk.

** The Id has only Tanathos, the love of death, and no Eros, the actual love. [[spoiler:Showing it Compassion makes its hatred useless, thus denying its reason to live]].

* After finding ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream'', I became fascinated with the story and read the original short as soon as I could. I was fairly disappointed. The writing was sloppy and mediocre and the story wasn't nearly as chilling as I'd hoped it would be. Nevertheless, it remained in my mind for a while. As I was driving to work one day, I was thinking about IHNMAIMS. The whole premise is that '''AM''' is railing against his fate by taking his pain out on a few members of the species that forced him into this situation. I was wondering, 'Why doesn't he just build a ship, transfer as much of his consciousness as possible into it, and ''leave''? Go exploring. Find new planets and actually live. It occurred to me that the only reason could be that he isn't able to. And then I started really thinking, and struck upon a mine of pure FridgeBrilliance:

*** Even more Fridge Brilliance: unable to create, only able to mock and destroy? Trapped because of this? Torments people for eternity? AM isn't God; AM is Satan.