Nightmare Fuel cleanup and maintenance

A Night Off

• Tyrian gleefully massacring the trapped citizens at the rally after Watts turns off the lights, while the Huntsmen are unable to intervene due to the darkness and the panicked civilians blocking them. When the Happy Huntresses try to rally, he sneaks up on Fiona and cuts right through her Aura, nearly gutting her and only sparing Robyn because he needs her alive to frame Penny. Then the lights come back on, revealing a pile of corpses littered across the floor.

Gravity

• Ironwood gets his arm trapped in a Hard Light barrier by Watts, and when he tries to pull it out, the skin sizzles and burns clean off. Ironwood doesn't let it stop him though, and pulls the entire arm through the barrier, flaying the skin off his entire arm just to get at Watts. And while most of the actual flaying occurs offscreen, the result is shown in full detail.

• The Seer Grimm bursting out of Watts' bag, curling in on itself, and dying, with the Grimm smoke swirling out into an image of Salem. She coolly explains that all the chaos in Mantle has been merely setting the stage for the final result, and that she is coming to Atlas personally to crush all that's left. When Ruby tries to stand up to her, Salem takes her happy memory of her mother smiling at her and distorts it into a painful one of her mother sadly slipping away (with a horrible screeching sound being used to indicate the manipulation), causing Ruby to lose control of her eyes and then collapse in tears.

• After Salem's message concludes, Ironwood gets disturbingly calm, then announces his plan to have Winter claim the Maiden power by force and use the Staff to launch Atlas into the upper atmosphere. When Blake protests that he's leaving the thousands of people still trapped in Mantle to die, he calmly answers that yes, he is, with absolutely no remorse. And the Ace Ops all go along with it, with only Marrow showing any conflict.

• During the entire volume we saw evidence of the flaws within Ironwood's methodology and the suffering it causes to the people of Mantle, as well as his trauma over the fall of Beacon. This episode brings both tendencies to a head, when a glass queen left by Cinder triggers Ironwood's trauma, swiftly destroying the all of the progress achieved during this volume and turning our heroes against each other.

With Friends Like These

• Clover's death, being impaled by Tyrian usinng Qrow's sword, leaving Qrow to impotently watch as Clover bleeds out.

• Cinder's entrance to the Winter Maiden's bedroom, with the lightning and sound framing her as something out of a slasher film as she throws a fireball at Winter.

The Enemy of Trust

• The last time we saw Cinder's Grimm arm, it ended at the middle of her left bicep. Now, it's grown all the way up to her shoulder and exposed all the muscles in it. When Winter cuts it off, Cinder wails in shock....then starts screaming and flailing like a woman possessed while a new arm quickly and painfully emerges from the stump, all on its own.

• Salem arriving amidst a storm she conjured with a fleet of flying Beringels and a flying whale Grimm the size of Atlas itself. Qrow was not kidding when he said that Salem would not be worried about the Atlesians' "little ships"....they have no chance against her Grimm, and they never did.

• "Tea at the Treedome", which revolves around SpongeBob slowly dehydrating in Sandy's tree dome. His Madness Mantra of "I don't need it" while staring at a vase of water before he finally snaps, complete with a Heartbeat Soundtrack and the Gross-Up Close-Up of his face, is pretty creepy. I found it more funny than creepy. But the entry is well-written enough. Keep.
• Near the beginning of "Naughty Nautical Neighbors," Squidward laughs as he's eating a meal, and due to getting distracted for a moment, he chokes on his fork. We're treated to a shot lasting several seconds of Squidward choking on the fork, which is lodged in his throat, all while he makes painful choking sounds. Eventually, his face tuns blue and he passes out. Thankfully, Patrick saves him. Again, more funny than gross. OK-written example, albeit weak. Consider deleting.
• The jellyfish stinging SpongeBob after he stops their music in "Jellyfish Jam" is unsettling, and the disturbing music certainly doesn't help either. We see graphic, violent shots of SpongeBob being stung by the jellyfish in full detail and in one frame, after he gets stung, you can see that he's blue and ripped in half for a split second! (no pun intended). Seems exaggerated Nightmare Porn. Delete.
• "Squeaky Boots", which is a parody of The Telltale Heart. Mr. Krabs becomes annoyed by the squeaky sound of these new boots he gave SpongeBob, so he steals them and hides them under the floorboard of the Krusty Krab. Back at the Krusty Krab, he has a disturbing hallucination sequence as a result of his guilt, in which he hears the squeaking everywhere and goes mad from it. Lacking in context why it's disturbing, and also played for laughs. Delete.
  "STOP IT!!! STOOOP IIIIT!!! Oh, oh, don't ya hear it?! Yes, I did it! I did it! I did it! I took the boots! They're heeere! Under the floor board! Oh, please! Make it stop! IT IS THE SQUEAKIN' OF THE HIDEOUS BOOTS!!! I'm sorry, but I can't take the infernal squeakin' no more!
• An unused close up of SpongeBob with his brain exposed◊ for "Scaredy Pants" was found online. It was most likely removed for a good reason. Creepy, but since it's unused, consider deleting or moving to the "Other" folder.
• “I Was A Teenage Gary” has one of the creepiest examples of Body Horror in the series, namely the scene where Spongebob slowly transforms into a snail after accidentally injecting himself with the snail plasma. Near the end of the episode, Squidward gets transformed into a snail as well. Thankfully, his transformation occurs offscreen (but then there was the rumor that it was supposed to be shown onscreen, which would have been far worse). Lacking on context as to why it's creepy, and possibly exaggerated. Delete.
• “SB-129” features Squidward arriving in a realm of nothingness after traveling through the future and the past. He’s alone there with only mild (but creepy) noises heard in the background. The audience can tell there’s something...off about this place but Squid initially likes it because of its seclusion. Until he says “alone”, the word “alone” appears in various fonts, all announced by disembodied voices that start to slowly layer upon each other. This freaks out Squidward to the point where he runs away from the realm. More existential horror and an in-universe scare than an audience scare. Delete.

• "Your Shoe's Untied" has a scene where SpongeBob, who doesn't know how to tie his shoes, tries to give Squidward a Krabby Patty. He hallucinates his shoelaces as hideous-looking snakes who choke him! This is worsened by the background slowly melting as it happens. Exaggerated. Delete.
• "Squid's Day Off" where SpongeBob is left in charge of the Krusty Krab while Squidward goes out to do some "errands". After running back and forth Squidward finally barricades himself in his house. "I'm not going to think about you know who, at the who know what, doing I don't care." Cut to creepy laugh and a psycho-looking Squidward◊ with wide bloodshot eyes. More funny than scary. Delete.
  • The music that plays in the scene mentioned above. It's very demented, creepy music box music and a kettle drum, ending with a loud "Psycho" Strings sting. Exaggerated. Delete.
• "Wormy" has live-action bug close-ups with loud buzzing. They come out of nowhere, especially the third time. Gross but not nightmare-inducing. Delete.
• In "Pressure", Sandy gets into an argument with the other main characters about which is better: land animals or sea animals. They taunt her until she tries to prove her superiority by ripping her suit off and taking off her helmet and smashing it, leaving her wearing nothing but a bikini. The scene is frightening because her smashed helmet releases an air bubble which quickly floats away, and you can't help but think, "That was her only air!" The worst part is that her friends laugh at her as she begins drowning, until her lungs shrivel up and break off of her airways in an x-ray. Once she realizes she's about to die, she quickly finds a pickle jar which inexplicably has air in it and sticks her head into it. Fridge Horror. Delete.
• "Shanghaied" features Squidward being thrown by the Flying Dutchman into the "Fly of Despair", an abyss filled with terrifying imagery and sounds while Spongebob and Patrick watch in horror. ZCE. Delete.
  • There are also the alternate endings you could take a look at. They're even darker than the original ending; basically, what happens is that Patrick and Squidward both screw up the last wish and lead the trio to getting eaten for sure, not to mention that they're still alive, trapped in the Dutchman's stomach for all eternity. Fridge Horror. Delete.
• In "Welcome to the Chum Bucket," SpongeBob tries to cook in the Chum Bucket kitchen and opens the oven to reveal a mutated burger. The meat part of it forms into a hand and starts crawling towards SpongeBob, muttering something incoherently. Not that scary. Delete.
• "Frankendoodle." The doodle's babbling, raving voice, its violent intentions, and the way it's drawn are deeply disturbing. More funny with a mild side of creepy, admits it gets less scary in later parts, and the expression is comical not scary. Delete.
  • "YOU DOODLE! ME SPONGEBOB!"
  • It almost becomes LESS scary during the climax when it's face becomes overtly hostile, there's something incredibly disturbing about the blank expression it has for most of the episode, even when it's acting violently.
  • When Spongebob erases it for the first time, he misses one of it's arms, which later tracks him down in the middle of the night, walks into his house, takes the pen which Spongebob is sleeping with, and redraws itself from below the bed. Spongebob wakes up, but thinks it's the pen itself that's moving, and just laughs, noticing too late when Doodlebob reappears.
• The episode "Graveyard Shift", with its Real After All villain, the Hash-Slinging Slasher. Keep.
  • If you ask several Spongebob fans what scenes were the scariest in the show, it is likely they will respond with the Hash-Slinging Slasher. The episode already started creepily, with the consuming darkness and the unnerving ghost story, but the cherry on top was the slow-burn approach of the Slasher, with Squidward and Spongebob accepting their demise.
  • The ending has all the scary things being explained rationally... but then the lights star flickering on and off because Count Orlok had been flipping the light-switch. He's not even animated! Delete. Orlok is creepy, but this moment was funny rather than scary.
• In "Procrastination", SpongeBob dreams that his house catches on fire as a result of SpongeBob putting off doing a report, and it suddenly becomes sentient, using its door for a mouth and port-hole window for an eye, and screams in agony as it burns. There's also the snail clock coming to life and saying in a sinister deep voice "Time's up, SpongeBob!" SpongeBob then sees the news anchor coming out of his TV after a report on him, and karate chops it in surprise. When the power goes out in SpongeBob's house, he lights a candle and hears someone cooing out his name. He turns around and sees his chair has gained a horrific-looking mouth and eyes and is coaxing him to "put his feet up" in a obscenely creepy voice. When he arrives at the table after running through a surreal landscape of melted clocks, a candle flame comes to life, saying "Only 799 words to go!" giving an Evil Laugh, and burning the report. Mild creepiness exaggerated through Nightmare Porn. Delete.

• The fourth Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy episode takes Body Horror to a new level; when trying to reverse the ray, SpongeBob puts Squidward through an increasingly painful series of agonizing morphs — catching fire, being cut in half by scissors, having no skin... the worst transformations happened offscreen, with hideous gurgling sound effects that left the true horror to the viewer's imagination, which only made it worse. Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • And then there's the part where the shrunken citizens attack SpongeBob from the inside. The especially jarring highlights include Squidward sawing a blood vessel and Nancy Suzy Fish chopping off a lung. Not as scary as it sounds. Delete.
• In "Clams," after Mr. Krabs loses his millionth dollar we see him slowly go completely insane. They cut back to Mr. Krabs, who begins giggling maniacally and tears his two eyes out, using them as a jumprope. Admittedly pretty creepy. Possible keep.
• "The Great Snail Race" has two moments that qualify for this trope. First, the part where SpongeBob overworks Gary, causing the latter's shell and eye stalks to burst in the middle of the race. Then there's the part where Gary crashes in a giant fireball against a wall of tires. The eye explosion was kinda gross, but that's not the same as scary, and the rest was darkly funny. Delete.
• The live-action gorilla, emerging from his animated Patrick suit in "I Had An Accident" and proceeding to beat the snot out of Patrick and Sandy. He even tears SpongeBob in half! Cartoon violence, funny not scary. Delete.
• Believe it or not, the "cheap walk cycles" Fake-Out Opening in "The Sponge Who Could Fly" actually creeped out some younger audiences. This is mostly because SpongeBob acts strange where he goes from being happy, to being goofy, to acting paranoid about being followed, to explosive shock, over and over again without any explanation whatsoever. Sure, the scene is just for laughs, but even for this series, the comedy in this scene is so bizarre that young audiences can't help but feel creeped out by it. Patchy's Heroic BSoD afterwards doesn't help matters. It makes him "sorry [he] ever became a fan in the first place" and he runs away. Keep.
• The infamous Chocolate Guy from "Chocolate With Nuts" is hilarious until you think about it from Spongebob and Patrick’s view. They have just started an innocent business of selling chocolate bars, but when they offer one to their first potential customer, he suddenly snaps, yells like a broken record, and starts chasing them with the implication that he’s crazy enough to kill them over chocolate. And to make matters worse, just when they forget about Tom, he comes back as psychotic as ever. Fridge Horror. Delete.