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(NOTE: Keep it civil, try not to get into any Flame Bait-y territory.)

One thing I've noticed is that for all how the page for They Might Be Giants claims them to be the unofficial official band of this wiki, there's relatively few people on this site who seem to ever reference them.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 13th 2024 at 12:59:03 PM

ChloeJessica Since: Jun, 2020 Relationship Status: Awaiting my mail-order bride
#8251: Jul 28th 2022 at 9:38:24 AM

maybe we're just old and jaded and things don't scare us anymore, Jay

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#8252: Jul 28th 2022 at 9:42:01 AM

Eh, I wouldn't say I'm jaded, I love horror, I just don't think a skeleton face is creepy... at least when out of context.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 28th 2022 at 12:42:53 PM

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
BackSet1 I <3 Zinnia from I'm sure you'd love to know that, wouldn't you? (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
I <3 Zinnia
#8253: Jul 28th 2022 at 9:44:07 AM

Yeah, at this point we're less mocking Nightmare Fuel pages as we are mocking people who might genuinely think something is scary just because it doesn't scare us.

Sure some of it is obviously badge of honor stuff, usually when involving Bold Inflation, but that doesn't mean all of it is.

Read Pokemon Ultimate Emerald
BlackFaithStar [Hiatus til March] from 🇲🇾 (UTC plus 8) (Less Newbie) Relationship Status: Longing for my OTP
[Hiatus til March]
#8254: Jul 28th 2022 at 9:44:08 AM

Only thing I've to say about any NF page is that, when I was new to the site at around 2020, before I even looked at NightmareFuel.Bo Boi Boy, I correctly guessed what the page image would be. Of course, you can't see it now because it was removed by the Moments page images Cleanup thread here. Ah well, I've no gripes about it, will just have to make a case after I clean it up again - which may be a bit trickier now that I have no idea what's happening in the newer installments since they're only in physical comic form at the moment. Hmm.

Edit: Said moment that the page image was of is agreed by a lot of fans to have scared them at least, or is one of the most memorable moments for being scary. Same with me, although granted, I was 7. So again, this'll still be up to the cleanup threads to decide.

Edited by BlackFaithStar on Jul 29th 2022 at 12:52:20 AM

When you're alone I'm reaching out to let you know that you're far from strangers, like the savior
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#8255: Jul 28th 2022 at 9:50:14 AM

[up][up] Oh, I'm not trying to mock anybody, Piter just built the games up so much that it created a juxtaposition with the comparatively tame images and I had to giggle. The games could be genuinely scary, the images just threw me off (and there's a reason why Nightmare Fuel pages and images are cleaned more than any other moments pages, because a lot of it is genuinely unscary even to the target audience, which I'm not saying is the case here, but...).

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 28th 2022 at 12:51:01 PM

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
JankyKong He's finally back to kick some... wait from a Secret Base on the Moon Since: May, 2021 Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
He's finally back to kick some... wait
#8256: Jul 28th 2022 at 9:58:14 AM

Admittedly, the Splatterhouse one is better in context. I remember being scared of it the first time I saw it.

Your melody still remains in this room and it rings
BackSet1 I <3 Zinnia from I'm sure you'd love to know that, wouldn't you? (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
I <3 Zinnia
#8257: Jul 28th 2022 at 10:05:01 AM

[up][up]I'm not specifically calling out this specific instance. I'm just saying that we've kind of been mocking NF pages in general and claiming they're all just Badge of Honor stuff and nobody who actually makes entries on them is actually scared of what they're claiming to be scared of just because we're not scared of them.

Read Pokemon Ultimate Emerald
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#8258: Jul 28th 2022 at 10:07:51 AM

I mean, that's sort of the current perception everyone has of them after all the stuff we've had to clean from these pages. (Well, that and the infamous Ready Jet Go! stuff... and the endless RWBY drama...)

Not all Nightmare Fuel pages are written by people who just want to make their work seem edgier, but if you start to look closely you'll find a lot that are simply because people like to exaggerate these things.

Most of the problem pages are for kid's works or super popular works, to be fair. For instance, Wanda Vision was genuinely creepy at times (the dinner scene was one of the few times I got chills), but the NF page made it seem like everything the show did was scary.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 28th 2022 at 1:09:40 PM

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
PhantomDusclops92 Nitpicky Nitwit from Italy Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
Nitpicky Nitwit
#8259: Jul 28th 2022 at 1:50:28 PM

I remember when I was very obsessed with the PSA page and there was this example mentioning a PSA about texting while driving that I really wanted to see with my eyes because the description wasn't enough, but there was no link and searching on Youtube brought nothing.

BackSet1 I <3 Zinnia from I'm sure you'd love to know that, wouldn't you? (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
I <3 Zinnia
#8260: Jul 28th 2022 at 2:09:50 PM

I still say the best Nightmare Fuel page is the computer folder in the other subpage which is, admittedly, mostly kind of dumb (the BSOD is not scary) but when it talks about viruses is kind of scary, mainly because I usually find computer and tech based horror to be pretty scary. Like, the idea of something irreparably fucking up my computer is really scary to me which admittedly makes me sound like a shallow gen-z member who's addicted to his computer and can't live without it but, I mean, how is something that fills my computer with porn, corrupts my files, and then uses the text-to-speech function in the computer to laugh at and mock me not terrifying?

Read Pokemon Ultimate Emerald
arimothereindeer Boi from here to eternity, that's where she takes me Since: Dec, 2016 Relationship Status: Staying up all night to get lucky
Boi
#8261: Jul 28th 2022 at 2:25:03 PM

> Yeah, at this point we're less mocking Nightmare Fuel pages as we are mocking people who might genuinely think something is scary just because it doesn't scare us.

Yeah, I hate how "hyperrealistic eyes" became a cliche that is mocked and made fun of because I genuinely find that really scary. I hate eyes, especially eye gore and realistic eyes in places they don't belong and clusters of eyes, it's something that I've always hated.

Reindeer in the direction of reindeer
mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#8262: Jul 28th 2022 at 2:29:47 PM

I feel like often the Nightmare Fuel cleanups forget that A) a lot of these pages are for things that scare kids in shows made for kids, and B) people can have really weird fears and mistakenly assume the whole world agrees (like most YMMV).

Sometimes it stops being "we don't want other sites to mock us" and ends up with people mocking each other. As someone who had really weird, explicable fears as a kid due to autism (like this really tame anti-piracy subway ad), I can see that some people don't add these entries to make the page look adult, but because they genuinely find something creepy. It's just hard to nail because maybe fears are more abstract than, like, Moments pages.

That said, I have to actively avoid most of the PSA pages because they trigger paranoia for me. I can only kind of stand the stuff about abuse and bullying since that's less about chance and more about dissuading certain decisions I wouldn't make anyway. But rarely do I click on links there. Even the regular Ads section is freaky for some reason.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#8263: Jul 28th 2022 at 3:34:26 PM

To be fair, we do try and keep the examples that scare people, it's just that it's not always possible to get in the mindset of the audience. On occasions people have showed to say "you deleted this but it was something I found scary" and then they can restore it. So the cleanup isn't perfect and can be excessive like all cleanups can be, but what we're really trying to combat are things that are either intentionally exaggerated, didn't actually happen (Fridge Horror and WMG), or don't actually explain why the thing is scary. We're not trying to pull things that actually did scare people, as long as it's a thing that, like, actually happened and isn't based in a specific phobia (and isn't scary to people who aren't phobic).

I actually don't find fear more abstract than the other pages; the opposite, actually. Horror is just as subjective as anything, but it's easier to explain why a thing is scary than it is to explain why a thing is, say, funny. But, that might be my perspective as a horror fan, and the existence of irrational or random fears do throw a wrench in there...

As for the hyperrealism thing, I think the issue is more to do with how it's become a creepypasta meme. The fact that it is scary is why people use it in the first place, but then every other creepypasta started doing it to the point where it became silly... And to be fair, hyperrealism is much scarier in a visual medium, in which case it's Uncanny Valley.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 28th 2022 at 6:37:44 AM

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
BackSet1 I <3 Zinnia from I'm sure you'd love to know that, wouldn't you? (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
I <3 Zinnia
#8264: Jul 28th 2022 at 5:17:54 PM

I think I've figured it out!

The quality of a NF page can usually (I repeat, usually) be determined by whether or not it has a "funny" introduction, usually talking about how "Just because it's a lighthearted show doesn't mean it's not dark" or something.

Read Pokemon Ultimate Emerald
PurpleEyedGuma Since: Apr, 2020
#8265: Jul 28th 2022 at 5:21:17 PM

Double points if the caption says that the thing in the image doesn’t even come close to one of the scariest things in the work, even if the fact that it was picked as the image should prove otherwise.

Edited by PurpleEyedGuma on Jul 28th 2022 at 8:21:29 AM

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#8266: Jul 28th 2022 at 5:24:18 PM

Yeahhh, the more people hype up the page the more likely it is to be seen as a badge of honor.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
BackSet1 I <3 Zinnia from I'm sure you'd love to know that, wouldn't you? (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: Yes, I'm alone, but I'm alone and free
I <3 Zinnia
#8267: Jul 28th 2022 at 5:32:39 PM

Speaking of openings, have you noticed how nobody seems to be able to decide how to write the "spoilers off" disclaimer. The one on Forgotten Land's NF page has been rewritten and reformatted at least five times at this point and that's just one example.

Read Pokemon Ultimate Emerald
mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#8268: Jul 28th 2022 at 7:03:43 PM

I always just see it as "Moments pages are Spoilers Off" and maybe a You Have Been Warned thrown in.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#8269: Jul 28th 2022 at 7:04:07 PM

TBH, the main problem I have with Nightmare Fuel pages - at least within the context of the discussion above - is that bad actors and their attempts to hype things up have made me so cynical that it's hard to assume an entry I'm rolling my eyes at was added in good faith. But there's nothing inherently wrong about entries not being scary for other people.

Like, I don't think there's anything objectively wrong with the Advertising subpages, I just disagree that they're effective at doing anything except conveying that the tropers who added the entries were scared.

harryhenry It's either real or it's a dream Since: Jan, 2012
It's either real or it's a dream
#8270: Jul 28th 2022 at 8:38:50 PM

[up] Yeah, even before the Ready Jet Go! fiasco the Nightmare Fuel pages were notorious for tropers adding examples from this or that cartoon (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic was infamous for this) or preschool show to make it sound scarier and thus cooler than it really is. (See also: "Deconstruction" and all its derivatives, because tropers really wanna tell you how cool and subversive their favourite work is.)

Amonimus the "Retromancer" from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the "Retromancer"
#8271: Jul 29th 2022 at 3:08:26 AM

Almost wish there was a predefined message with "Tv Tropes is a privilege and not a service".

Maybe it's the "customer's always right" mentality.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
harryhenry It's either real or it's a dream Since: Jan, 2012
It's either real or it's a dream
#8272: Jul 29th 2022 at 6:09:19 AM

RE: The discussion a while back about finding tropers off-site, the opposite just happened to me: I was just looking through the Fact-Checking thread and saw a name there: "Revolutionary_Jack". Turns out they're the same user who's been writing a WordPress blog that I've been an avid reader of for a while (and I highly recommend it if you're looking for in-depth analysis on superhero comic history) and I just never put two-and-two together until now!

MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
(she/her)
#8273: Jul 29th 2022 at 6:34:53 AM

I am seeing a lot of transformation/shape shifting tropes come out of the TLP.

Macron's notes
harryhenry It's either real or it's a dream Since: Jan, 2012
It's either real or it's a dream
#8274: Jul 29th 2022 at 7:01:42 AM

[up] I noticed that too! Another Epic Fail seems to be behind most of them.

CytoZytokine Since: Jun, 2022
#8275: Jul 29th 2022 at 7:09:09 AM

Everyone has their area of TLP expertise. I noticed from my observations that Piterpicher is into Idle Game and Puzzle Game tropes, and bowserbros is into music tropes.

I'm not sure what my area of expertise is since I mostly adopt tropes. The reason I haven't came up with new tropes is simply because I'm drawing blanks in my head.


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