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Comic Books
"Robo. I think I'm insane now."
"Not knowing everything is all that makes it okay sometimes."
— Delirium, The Sandman (1989)
"Malak, however, had driven much of his support team to atheism, despair and suicide. Not only was he clearly not connected to anything like God, but reportedly the fucking thing would not stop talking."
— Reddin, Supergod
There came an understanding so large, it left no room for sanity.
Fan Works
Standing up, [She] began to expand at a phenomenal rate, the same grotesque metamorphosis that had occurred before repeating itself on a scale a thousand times grander. Those that saw this happen invariably ran screaming when they did not collapse into quivering, vomiting piles of mental trauma. Those that had the misfortune for [her] ghostly flesh to pass through them were left gibbering wrecks, their sanity violently and permanently ripped from them by the horrific experience.
Film — Animated
GOOOOOOOOOOOONE! It's all gone. All of it's gone! Bye-bye, woo hoo, see ya! [...] DON'T YOU GET IT?!? YOU SEE THE HAT?!? I AM MRS! NESBIT! BUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA...!
— Buzz Lightyear after learning he is really a toy, Toy Story
Film — Live-Action
Quill: Don't you think that we should all have a weapon like that?
Thor: No mortal form could handle the strain of this weapon; your bodies would collapse on themselves as your minds would be slowly lost to madness.
Rocket: Is it weird that I wanna try it even more now?
Thor: Mmm, a little bit, yeah.
Thor: No mortal form could handle the strain of this weapon; your bodies would collapse on themselves as your minds would be slowly lost to madness.
Rocket: Is it weird that I wanna try it even more now?
Thor: Mmm, a little bit, yeah.
"You think you've seen everything? There's a whole world you've never dreamed of. Thomas saw it, and it destroyed him."
—Father Kovak, End of Days
Engywook: Next is the Magic Mirror Gate. Atreyu has to face his true self.
Falkor: So what? That won't be too hard for him.
Engywook: Oh, that's what everyone thinks! But kind people find out that they are cruel. Brave men discover that they are really cowards! Confronted by their true selves, most men run away screaming!
Falkor: So what? That won't be too hard for him.
Engywook: Oh, that's what everyone thinks! But kind people find out that they are cruel. Brave men discover that they are really cowards! Confronted by their true selves, most men run away screaming!
Literature
The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
"Fernand...of my hundred names I need only tell you one to overwhelm you. But you guess it now, do you not? Or rather you remember it. For none withstanding all my sorrows and my tortures, I show you a face which the happiness of revenge makes young again. A face you must often have seen in your dreams since your marriage with Mercedes— my betrothed."
The general, with his head thrown back, hands extended, gazed fixed, looked silently at this apparition. Then seeking the wall to support him, he glided along close to it until he reached the door, through which he glided out backwards, uttering this single, mournful, lamentable, distressing cry.
"EDMOND DANTES!"
Then with sighs that were unlike any human sound, he dragged himself to the door, reeled into the courtyard, and falling into the arms of his valet, said in a voice scarcely intelligible, "Home, home!"
[...] The general drew himself up, clinging to the door. He uttered the most dreadful sob which ever escaped from the bosom of a father, abandoned the same time by his wife and son. He soon heard the iron clad of the step of the hackney coach. And then the coachman's voice, and then the heavy rolling shook the windows. He darted to the bedroom to see all that he had loved in the world, but the hackney coach drove on without either the head of Mercedes or her son appearing at the window to take a last look at the house or the deserted father or husband. But at the very moment when the wheels of that coach passed the gateway, a report was heard, and a thick smoke escaped from one the panes of the window, which was broken by the explosion.''
The general, with his head thrown back, hands extended, gazed fixed, looked silently at this apparition. Then seeking the wall to support him, he glided along close to it until he reached the door, through which he glided out backwards, uttering this single, mournful, lamentable, distressing cry.
"EDMOND DANTES!"
Then with sighs that were unlike any human sound, he dragged himself to the door, reeled into the courtyard, and falling into the arms of his valet, said in a voice scarcely intelligible, "Home, home!"
[...] The general drew himself up, clinging to the door. He uttered the most dreadful sob which ever escaped from the bosom of a father, abandoned the same time by his wife and son. He soon heard the iron clad of the step of the hackney coach. And then the coachman's voice, and then the heavy rolling shook the windows. He darted to the bedroom to see all that he had loved in the world, but the hackney coach drove on without either the head of Mercedes or her son appearing at the window to take a last look at the house or the deserted father or husband. But at the very moment when the wheels of that coach passed the gateway, a report was heard, and a thick smoke escaped from one the panes of the window, which was broken by the explosion.''
— Fernand getting this twice in one chapter in The Count of Monte Cristo
Benjamin: That's the thing about learning the Truth, you see. It changes you, but there's no way of predicting how. I was one of the ones who made peace with themselves. Some people just stop caring altogether, become totally indifferent. And some people...
Jim: Some people what?
Benjamin: Some people go completely off their bonce. You remember Groyn? Short chap, beard, sawed off your foot?
Jim: Yeah?
Benjamin: Learnt the Truth the same time I did. Went on a voyage to blotto junction, I'm afraid. I don't think he's stopped biting the heads off children for a moment since then.
Jim: Some people what?
Benjamin: Some people go completely off their bonce. You remember Groyn? Short chap, beard, sawed off your foot?
Jim: Yeah?
Benjamin: Learnt the Truth the same time I did. Went on a voyage to blotto junction, I'm afraid. I don't think he's stopped biting the heads off children for a moment since then.
— Mogworld
As there is one Face above all worlds which merely to see is irrevocable joy, so at the bottom of all worlds that face is waiting whose sight alone is the misery from which none who beholds it can recover.
It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.
Live-Action TV
Poor Redvers... he was so frightened, his hair went completely white... he went quite mad, you know...
— Redvers Fenn-Cooper, Doctor Who, "Ghost Light"
The Doctor: As a novice, [the Master] was taken for initiation. He stood in front of the Untempered Schism, that's a gap in the fabric of reality. Through which could be seen the whole of the Vortex. You stand there... Eight years old... Staring at the raw power of time and space — just a child. Some would be inspired. Some would run away. And some would go mad. (exhales) I dunno.
Martha: What about you?
The Doctor: (matter-of-factly) Oh, the ones that ran away! I never stopped!
Martha: What about you?
The Doctor: (matter-of-factly) Oh, the ones that ran away! I never stopped!
— Doctor Who, "The Sound of Drums"
Please, Nabu, don't whisper too loudly. Don't show me what can be or not be. Fate is a fickle thing.
When our people found a way to slip through the warp and prove another universe, an identical one, existed, it was too much for him. He could not live knowing that I lived. He became obsessed with the idea of destroying me. The fact that it meant his own destruction, and everything else, meant nothing to him.
— Anti-Matter!Lazarus describing his evil Matter counterpart, Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Alternative Factor"
Music
He holds out his hands and he touches the chest
He breaks its seals, he disturbs its rest
Curious and slow he opens the lid
He stares over the edge, what he sees he can't grip
No diamonds but he sees his own face
A possessed wreck with an empty gaze
Thrilled by madness he's dying in pain
No dream, he's insane!
He breaks its seals, he disturbs its rest
Curious and slow he opens the lid
He stares over the edge, what he sees he can't grip
No diamonds but he sees his own face
A possessed wreck with an empty gaze
Thrilled by madness he's dying in pain
No dream, he's insane!
— Running Wild, "Diamonds of the Black Chest"
''All my life I've searched for the reasons for us being here,
The universe and all that it contains
I've tried to find the secrets of the brain
Twenty years I've labored trying to find who my creator was
And now at last the pieces fall in place
It's funny and it shows upon my face!
And now the music goes round my head
And I can't hear a thing you said
And my laughing goes through my brain
It's so comical I'm insane!
The universe and all that it contains
I've tried to find the secrets of the brain
Twenty years I've labored trying to find who my creator was
And now at last the pieces fall in place
It's funny and it shows upon my face!
And now the music goes round my head
And I can't hear a thing you said
And my laughing goes through my brain
It's so comical I'm insane!
— The Easybeats, "Music Goes Round My Head" (covered by The Saints for the Young Einstein soundtrack)
Tabletop Games
I am confident that if anyone actually penetrates our facades, even the most perceptive would still be fundamentally unprepared for the truth of House Dimir.
— Szadek of the House Dimir, Magic: The Gathering
h. Unknown artificial artefact. Unlabelled. Structure is analogous to human hand. Compositional tests confirm metal alloy exterior comprises unknown materials f
The Metal Lives.
The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives.
THE METAL LIVES.
THE METAL LIVES.
THE METAL LIVES.
The Metal Lives.
The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives. The Metal Lives.
THE METAL LIVES.
THE METAL LIVES.
THE METAL LIVES.
— Magos Biologis Sharle Darvus, artefact study notes, Xenology
Thought For The Day: Be strong in your ignorance. Knowledge brings only suffering.
In any event, the Weaver became excited by her new understanding, and began to weave more and more, furiously trying to overtake the Wyld so that its creation could be complete. The Wyrm was hard pressed to tear down what she had overbuilt. The Weaver became more and more upset that she could not complete her Web without the Wyld changing it or the Wyrm destroying portions of it.
Then the Weaver looked upon her web with her new eyes of awareness... and saw nothing. The marvelous, intricate patterns were meaningless. All she had been working towards, all she was... was nothing. Her newly conscious mind could not stand the enormity of her own useless work: she went mad. On she spun, in ever-widening patterns, disconnected from the rest of the Triat, heedless of any intervention.
Then the Weaver looked upon her web with her new eyes of awareness... and saw nothing. The marvelous, intricate patterns were meaningless. All she had been working towards, all she was... was nothing. Her newly conscious mind could not stand the enormity of her own useless work: she went mad. On she spun, in ever-widening patterns, disconnected from the rest of the Triat, heedless of any intervention.
— Werewolf: The Apocalypse - Book Of The Wyrm (1st Ed)
Some seek the Void. He found it. What he discovered, either through his arcane Arts or during a journey to the Upper Reaches - drove him utterly insane. Was he a sailor upon uncanny seas? Or a tower-bound astrologer who saw far too clearly through his telescopes? Perhaps he encountered the demon hordes through their bestial servitors... or maybe he's met them face-to-face on a Skyrigger's decks. Either way, he has returned forever changed. He may act composed, but his soul is on fire for his demented, cthonic masters.
Regardless of his trade, this wight is a rot-worm in the Daedalean foundations. He claims to serve reason, but prefers its opposite instead. Like a tempter, he conceals his true allegiance behind a cloak of clever lies. Hidden in the halls of science, he drives wedges into the minds of other Daedaleans. At night, he leads mad ceremonies on barren hilltops, or screams himself hoarse in fits of secret ecstasy.
Once, he called out for true Enlightenment. The answer he received raped his soul.
Regardless of his trade, this wight is a rot-worm in the Daedalean foundations. He claims to serve reason, but prefers its opposite instead. Like a tempter, he conceals his true allegiance behind a cloak of clever lies. Hidden in the halls of science, he drives wedges into the minds of other Daedaleans. At night, he leads mad ceremonies on barren hilltops, or screams himself hoarse in fits of secret ecstasy.
Once, he called out for true Enlightenment. The answer he received raped his soul.
— Background notes for the Star-Ravaged Madman Mage: The Sorcerer's Crusade - Infernalism
Video Games
Finally, resigned to his uncommon corporeal resilience I lured him to the dig. There, I showed him the THING and detailed the full extent of my plans. Triumphantly I watched as he tore his eyes from their sockets and ran shrieking into the shadows, wailing maniacally that the end was upon us all.
— The Ancestor, Darkest Dungeon
"Out of my way. I'm going to see my mother."
— Sephiroth, Final Fantasy VII
"Which will make you die or go insane!"
— One of H. P. Lovecraft's ending phrases, Oh...Sir!! The Insult Simulator
The Watcher: You seem to have lost your mind.
Maerwald: Lost? No. Found more of it. Too much. Too much to bear. An Awakening.
Mary Stuart: It's a very small, very high-risk field, being a great occult mind.
Catherine Stuart: Yes, they usually end up losing them to elder gods with names like a mouthful of cornflakes.
Catherine Stuart: Yes, they usually end up losing them to elder gods with names like a mouthful of cornflakes.
The Truth Burns
One engineer begins to laugh, seemingly unable to stop. Another weeps. The tears scorch his face like kettle-water. A third frantically tries to write down what you said, but gives up when her third pen combusts in lavender flame. "This changes everything," a grease-stained engineer whispers. Later, his colleagues catch him out back, burning his collected volumes of the Transactions of the South Wales Institute of Engineers.
One engineer begins to laugh, seemingly unable to stop. Another weeps. The tears scorch his face like kettle-water. A third frantically tries to write down what you said, but gives up when her third pen combusts in lavender flame. "This changes everything," a grease-stained engineer whispers. Later, his colleagues catch him out back, burning his collected volumes of the Transactions of the South Wales Institute of Engineers.
Geralt: You're clearly not human. What are you? A demon? A djinn?
O'Dimm: Do you truly wish to know?
Geralt: Yes.
O'Dimm: No, Geralt, you don't. This one time I will spare you and not grant your wish. [...] All who have learned my true name are dead, mad, or both. But I still need you.
O'Dimm: Do you truly wish to know?
Geralt: Yes.
O'Dimm: No, Geralt, you don't. This one time I will spare you and not grant your wish. [...] All who have learned my true name are dead, mad, or both. But I still need you.
— The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Hearts of Stone
Sauranok, Sauranok. His own visions worked against him. Twilight's Hammer probably corrupted him from afar.
— Garrosh Hellsceam, World of Warcraft
Visual Novels
The abyss would be so hard to bear it would shatter their mortal minds. Ludwig's downright divine pressure made the half of the world focused around Europe turn to abject panic. Numerous people committed suicide or went insane. Those engulfed by the surge of darkness saw nightmares that would plague them and their children for years to come. It spawned art that was said to cause madness upon merely seeing, hearing, or reading it, while many of the fetuses still cradled within the wombs were turned into albinos - children of Noah.
It was a moment when everyone was shaken by the darkness of Methuselah.
It was a moment when everyone was shaken by the darkness of Methuselah.
Web Animation
Wiz: At first glance, this town appeared calm and peaceful, not worth a second look.
Boomstick: Until a sword-wielding goth guy found his alien mother hidden inside. He celebrated with fireworks.
Boomstick: Until a sword-wielding goth guy found his alien mother hidden inside. He celebrated with fireworks.
— DEATH BATTLE!, describing the Nibelheim Incident
Web Comics
Murai: Just accept that they made a goddess, out of fear and disillusionment. A very bad goddess.
Digger: And you met her.
Murai: And I met her.
Digger: And now you're crazy.
Murai: *burying head in arms* And now I'm crazy.
— Digger
You haven't seen it! It's not your fault, really. I don't think ANYONE else has seen it. And when I did, wow! It REALLY did a number on me. I think I had a name, once. But I didn't have any room left for it. When I touched her mind... everything else just got so small.
— The Collector, Aurora (2019)
Web Original
Upon breaking out of his cryotube, an ecstatic Dr. Fuji tells Mewtwo that he is the end result of a scientific experiment to create an artificially enhanced cloned copy of Mew. Upon hearing this, Mewtwo takes the news rather well. (cuts to Mewtwo laying waste to the scientists and laboratory)
— American Anime Otaku in his review of Pokémon: The First Movie
That's right, I found a good Spider-Man game! Better late than never! It's no masterpiece or anything like that, but it woulda definitely been worth a rental at the very least. Who made this game? (looks on the box, sees the LJN logo, and drops the box in shock) Oh my God... Oh my God... They did it... They pulled through! Oh my God! They made a game... that's not a steaming pile of fuckin' shit! OH MY GOD! THEY DID IIIIIT! THEY MADE A GAME! THAT'S NOT SHIT! (starts crying) I found the gold... at the end of the rainbow. Well, maybe it's not gold, maybe it's bronze or somethin', but... THEY MADE A GAME! THAT'S NOT SHIT! IT'S NOOOOT SHIIIIIT!!
So after a filler episode where they get baked into a giant pizza......... Excuse me for a moment. (walks away) AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
Future!SF Debris: I HAVE BEHELD THE BEGINNING AND THE END, THE SORROW AND THE TRIUMPH.
Linkara: What.
Future!Obscurus Lupa: Uh, hey again. Yeah, it's him.
Future!SF Debris: THE LIGHT OF THE STARS NO LONGER REACHES US IN THE DEPTHS WE HAVE DESCENDED.
Linkara: What's wrong with him?
Future!Obscurus Lupa: Oh, well, after all the other video platforms either died or made it nearly impossible to upload content, he figured the easiest way to make his content available was to digitize himself and live on the internet.
Future!SF Debris: I HAVE BORNE WITNESS TO UNTOLD MAJESTIES... AND DEPRAVITY THAT WOULD DIM THE BRIGHTEST SOUL. I KNOW NOW WHAT SHAMES MANKIND... AND WHAT MAKES THEIR HEARTS ROT.
Future!Obscurus Lupa: (sighs) God, he always gets like this after he goes through DeviantArt...
Linkara: What.
Future!Obscurus Lupa: Uh, hey again. Yeah, it's him.
Future!SF Debris: THE LIGHT OF THE STARS NO LONGER REACHES US IN THE DEPTHS WE HAVE DESCENDED.
Linkara: What's wrong with him?
Future!Obscurus Lupa: Oh, well, after all the other video platforms either died or made it nearly impossible to upload content, he figured the easiest way to make his content available was to digitize himself and live on the internet.
Future!SF Debris: I HAVE BORNE WITNESS TO UNTOLD MAJESTIES... AND DEPRAVITY THAT WOULD DIM THE BRIGHTEST SOUL. I KNOW NOW WHAT SHAMES MANKIND... AND WHAT MAKES THEIR HEARTS ROT.
Future!Obscurus Lupa: (sighs) God, he always gets like this after he goes through DeviantArt...
See, Lovecraft's stories haven't remained popular so long just because his monsters are scary. They endure because his monsters are metaphors for existential alienation. It's not the appearance of the monsters in his stories, it's the reality of them, the fact that they exist. Their existence alone proves that humanity is doomed and that all our hopes and dreams are stupid. Running into one of Lovecraft's Elder Gods is like finding a strange pair of underwear in your bed and realizing that your spouse is cheating on you. It's not the underwear itself that's stabbing you in the heart; it's the betrayal it represents. Lovecraft's monsters are proof to the protagonist that the universe is not benevolent. Finding strange underwear might mean that your spouse never loved you; stumbling upon a Lovecraft creature means that God never loved you.
— C. Coville, Cracked, "5 Types of Movie Adaptations That Must Be Stopped"
[Paradox] then creates holes in the cosmos that hateful things of anti-existence crawl through. These hateful things then go rampant while the Sleepers are shutting down their mental processes because otherwise they have to deal with the idea that something just crawled through a hole in the cosmos.
— An RPG.net member discussing the dangers of miscast spells
People, especially games, get eldritch madness wrong a lot and it's really such a shame. An ant doesn't start babbling when they see a circuit board. They might find it strange, to them it is a landscape of strange angles and humming monoliths. They may be scared, but that is not madness.
Madness comes when the ant, for a moment, can see as a human does.
It understands those markings are words, symbols with meaning, like a pheromone but infinitely more complex. It can travel unimaginable distances, to lands unlike anything it has seen before. It knows of mirth, embarrassment, love, concepts unimaginable before this moment, and then...
It's an ant again.
Echoes of things it cannot comprehend swirl around its mind. It cannot make use of this knwoeledge, but it still remembers. How is it supposed to return to its life? The more the ant saw, the harder it is for it to forget. It needs to see it again, understand again. It will do anything to show others, to show itself, nothing else in this tiny world matters.
This is madness.
Tumblr post by bramblesand
Western Animation
Oh no... T-This can't be... It says that I'm 102% African, with a 2% margin of error! Why lord? WHY LORD WHY?!
Uncle Ruckus seeing his DNA test results, The Boondocks
