Now with a sandbox!
It appears that many Nightmare Fuel pages have problems, including:
1. Listing non-scary things that made the viewer feel slightly uncomfortable at worst.
2. Having spoiler tags on them (which is against the page's guidelines).
3. Listing Fridge Horror and fan theories.
And much more!
On a few occasions, people from outside the site's community have pointed out our overly lax usage of Nightmare Fuel to make fun of us, meaning that it can legitimately harm our reputation to let this go unchecked.
The TRS thread
meant for redefining Nightmare Fuel started to become a place for cleaning up Nightmare Fuel pages in general, so we may as well move these discussions to Long Term Projects where they belong.
Here are the guidelines to determine whether something is Nightmare Fuel or not.
Nightmare Fuel rules
- This is a page whose name is intended to be taken more literally than most. It's not enough for material to be scary; to truly qualify, it has to be frightening enough to legitimately unnerve/disturb the viewer, with actually being nightmare-inducing as the ultimate endpoint.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- It left you feeling shaken even after the credits had rolled, you turned the last page, or are otherwise done with the work.
- You have a hard time falling asleep if you think about it at night, or have a literal nightmare about it.
- You dread that episode, scene, level, chapter, or song during re-watches, and consider skipping it.
- With that said, don't add something just because it happens to be your personal phobia. For example, spiders can be scary and many people have arachnophobia, but just because a spider happens to be in the work, it does not make a Nightmare Fuel entry. It needs to reasonably be scary to someone without the phobia.
- Don't confuse tension with fear. If the hero is in trouble, but you know he'll make it out okay at the end, it's probably not Nightmare Fuel unless the threat is especially disturbing.
- Good signs that something IS Nightmare Fuel include if:
- Explain WHY the entry scared you. Try to convey your sense of fear to your readers. Avoid putting up Zero-Context Examples.
- Remember that Weblinks Are Not Examples, and neither are quotes on their own. You should explain the horror in your own words, rather than rely on others to do so.
- Don't add things that might have scared someone. If it didn't scare you, and you don't personally know anyone else who was scared, you shouldn't be adding it to Nightmare Fuel.
- Nightmare Fuel should stick to you even after you're done with the work.
- If something is initially presented as scary but turns out to be harmless, it's most likely not Nightmare Fuel since The Reveal makes the scariness vanish.
- Jump Scares are a good source of Nightmare Fuel, but not all of them automatically qualify: being startled is not the same as being scared.
- Hypotheticals are not Nightmare Fuel:
- Remember that Trailers Always Lie: a scene that is presented as scary in the trailer could very well turn out to be inoffensive in the finished work. Only add examples from unreleased works if they were especially terrifying in the previews.
- Fan theories do not belong on the Nightmare Fuel page under any circumstance. No matter how much evidence they have to support them, don't add them until they've been officially confirmed. In the meanwhile, take them to Wild Mass Guessing.
- Fridge Horror goes on the Fridge page, not Nightmare Fuel. Don't add it unless it's Ascended Fridge Horror.
- Keep in mind the work's intended audience when considering whether or not something is Nightmare Fuel.
- If something is normal or expected in the genre, it does not automatically qualify. Violence in a Fighting Series or gore in a horror movie must be especially disturbing or gruesome by the work's standards to be Nightmare Fuel.
- Remember that Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films. If a work is rated PG-13 or higher but would only be scary to young children, it's not Nightmare Fuel.
- The standards on what qualifies as Nightmare Fuel are especially stringent on works aimed at children and pre-teens: kids have hyperactive imaginations, so even something benign can give them nightmares.
- Spoiler tags do not belong on Nightmare Fuel pages. Much of what scares us comes from inherently spoilery stuff such as death and the unknown, so finding spoilers on these pages should be expected.
- Nightmare Fuel is an Audience Reaction, so it needs to be scary for the audience. Describing how the characters react to something scary isn't needed. Just because something scares them, that doesn't mean it scares us as well.
- Nightmare Fuel is a No Real Life Examples, Please! page. Meta-examples involving the actors, production, or behind-the-scenes incidents are not allowed.
Guidelines when proposing cleanup of a page:
- Some rules are pretty objective. If you see a Zero-Context Example, Fridge Horror, Real Life example, speculation, In-Universe reaction that isn't scary to the viewers, examples that explicitly describe themselves as not being very scary (including "mildly creepy", "somewhat unnerving", and other synonymous phrases), or examples that are just scene summaries without going into detail about why it's so scary, you can (and should) remove them immediately without coming here to ask.
- You should also strip all spoiler tags from the page. Itty Bitty Wiki Tools has a tool for that, but it can cause problems, so if you use it be sure to preview the page and thoroughly look it over.
- Once you've fixed the objective issues with the page, bring it here so we can look at the more subjective problems, such as examples that may not be scary enough to qualify. If a consensus is reached that a certain entry does not qualify, it can be removed.
Edited by Zuxtron on Aug 1st 2020 at 9:40:30 AM
ChillyBeanBAM
EW
from Ontario, Canada
EW
Jun 1st 2021 at 8:32:23 AM
First-Person Writing is a personal pet peeve.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
The image links you posted don't work. But yeah, it is exaggerated.
Jun 1st 2021 at 8:38:05 AM
"I like girls, but now, it's about justice."
Wikia image links are ass and always break for whatever reason. In any case it's in the FOP wiki in the episode's image gallery.
Zuxtron
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Jun 1st 2021 at 9:38:26 AM
I swear that example was brought up here before... I definitely agree that it's a massive overreaction.
NightmareFuel.Death Battle is getting me PISSED OFF. Folks are adding practically every single death from the recent episodes, in a show that's all about characters killing each other, as well as other stuff that isn't really scary to the older teen and adult audience the show is aimed at. Seriously. This morning, I almost felt an urge to blank the page and leave an insulting edit reason; it's that bad (thankfully, I have the self-control to stop myself from doing that).
I'll start going through the latest season... I just wish I'd started bringing these up as they were added, rather than waiting for the folder to get this bloated.
Season 8
- While Yoda Vs King Mickey was a rather lighthearted episode, there is a brief moment of horror in the analysis, as it's heavily implied Boomstick outright signed for something demonic for Wiz with his blood, as a flurry of ghosts would suddenly rise up from the paper once he signed it, with unsettling implications about DUMMI being suggested as well.
Boomstick: What the hell was that!?
DUMMI: Finally. I won't be the only one.This is a very brief moment that's Played for Laughs. I seriously can't imagine a grown adult losing sleep over this. - Ryuko's extremely pained-sounding scream as Shadow vaporizes her and Senketsu with a Chaos Blast. When someone like her screams like that, you know that she suffered before she died; keep in mind that earlier in the fight, she literally glossed over having her arm chopped off like it was nothing.
Unsure. Here's a link to the moment, it sounds pained but not quite like the stuff of nightmares.
- Lex Luthor gets a creative and absolutely brutal Rasputinian Death at the hands of Doctor Doom. An Everyman Project-empowered Luthor has Doom pinned to the ground and is about to tear his mask off, at which point Victor activates the Oviod Mind Transfer to forcibly swap bodies with Luthor. Upon taking control, Doom plunges Lex's own hand through his chest to crush his heart before immediately swapping back, blasting the fatally-wounded Luthor backward into sharp steel rebar — from his own broken-apart logo, no less — to impale him, and then gorily slicing him into at least five pieces with enormous energy blades that destroy the entire LexCorp building in a fiery explosion, immolating his remains.
Also unsure. It is pretty gruesome, but then again, "gruesome" is not necessarily equal to "nightmarish". Gorn is a thing, bloody violence can be portrayed as cool rather than scary, which is how I interpreted this moment.
- Remember how agonizing Ace's death was back in Season 4? Imagine that, but even worse. Wait, you don't have to, Heihachi vs. Geese somehow made such a death even more horrifying. Not only was Geese outright impaled on a volcano stalagmite after being punched into it by Heihachi's Electric Wind Godfist beforehand, but we see him, in brutal detail, being melted alive by lavanote as he struggles to escape. His flesh and hair slowly burn away as he flails and screams — boiling away his eyes and exposing his muscles under his peeling skin — and he is eventually reduced to a charred skeleton that quickly crumbles to nothing. For how much of an unrepentant scumbag Geese is, it almost makes you feel sorry for the man.
This one is probably okay, since it's being compared to the page image.
- Blake Belladonna VS. Mikasa Ackerman: You know how RWBY's previous fights ended with relatively bloodless deaths? Well, Blake vs. Mikasa technically ends that way... but only because Mikasa doesn't bleed after Blake impales her through the chest with her own Thunder Spear, leaving her to scream in agony as fire pours out of her mouth and eyes right before being exploded into nothing, to the point where only a piece of her scarf remains.
Leaning towards "not scary" since it's quick and completely bloodless, though I can kinda see how the imagery of fire pouring out of Mikasa's mouth and eye sockets could be disturbing.
- Iron Fist VS. Po
- Wiz and Boomstick discuss Po's Dark and Troubled Past stemming from Kung Fu Panda 2, when Lord Shen learned about a prophecy that "a warrior of black and white" would defeat him:
Boomstick: So, in a fit of paranoia, Shen decided to genocide every panda in existence![...] Geez, we got real dark with the sequel, huh?This is just describing a scene from a movie aimed at young kids. Maybe it's scary for children to see it happen, but a teen or adult getting a second-hand recap of the scene won't feel any fear.- Them mentioning how after Danny threw The One's headless body off a cliff, it found the frozen body of his father, Wendell Rand. It proceeded to rip the head off the body and place it onto his own to replace its lost head. Even Boomstick was left stunned by this:
Boomstick: What the f*ck?! Who wrote this?This is completely misrepresenting the scene. Boomstick isn't horrified, he's laughing at how absurd the situation is.- The way Danny goes out, while not seeming that bad at first, is actually pretty horrifying. After a brief clash with their chi dragons, Po and Iron Fist charge at each other again, only for Po's dragon to eat Danny's dragon and then Danny himself. And since this happened in the Spirit Realm, that means that Danny is most likely Deader Than Dead.
This is by far one of the tamest deaths in the whole show. Quick, painless, and bloodless. Maybe if this was a kid's show, I'd accept this, but it definitely won't give teens and adults any nightmares. - Steven Universe VS. Star Butterfly:
- In Steven's analysis, Wiz brings up that time Steven's spit created a bunch of watermelon Stevens, and then tests out a ray gun planned to replicate this effect on a slice of melon that Boomstick just spat out. What does he get? A massive watermelon creature with Wiz' head on it, that gurgles incoherently. It looks pretty disturbing, in-universe (no pun intended) and out, judging by Boomstick's decision to blow it to pieces with his shotgun leg then and there.
Um, maybe? Melon-Wiz is only on screen for a second or two, and isn't THAT creepy. To be honest, I was expecting the example to focus more on how Boomstick instantly decided to kill it with no hesitation.- During Star's analysis, when Wiz discusses when Star and her family erased magic to save the world, Boomstick is quick to point out the Inferred Holocaust that Star had committed in that moment.
Boomstick: But... Doesn't that mean she killed all the magical creatures across the different dimensions because they need magic to survive!?Wiz: (Nervously) Yeaaaah, we don't talk about that...Like with the past episode, this is a second-hand recap of something that happened in a show for kids. It could be creepy in the show, but not seeing someone else explain it.- The fight is more of a funny and tear jerker of a battle. Though the nightmare fuel comes in at the end of the fight, when we're treated to a scene of Star standing on a burning beach, numerous Watermelon Stevens and her own summons dead on the ground as a result of her widespread Mega-Explosive Crystal Laser (Which she likely only did to break out of Steven's barrier trap), and Steven's shattered gem next to her. This imagery, paired with her odd yet cheerful personality upon thinking she won the sand sculpture contest with the ribbon blowing to her, just after defeating Steven, only makes her appear more like a psychotic killer than her usual airheaded yet cheerful self.
This is more funny than anything.- After Steven throws her head-first into the sand, Star rises out of it in her Ultimate Magic Butterfly Form, and glares at him before speaking in a creepy Voice of the Legion:
Star: That was RUDE!This was kinda unexpected, to be honest, but still, it's not really horrifying in a way that will give adults nightmares.- Also, before the end of the fight, when Steven and Star's respective forces run towards one another, at least one of Star's Warnicorns impales one Watermelon Steven on its horn, along with a sickening squelch. The Squick factor is somewhat downplayed, due to the fact that it's, you know, a watermelon person, but still...
This is a very quick scene, with no blood since it's a melon.- Steven's defeat doesn't help with this, as the poor kid ends up letting off a gutwrenching scream as he's struck by the laser, with his human body being vaporized, and his gem being seen shattering through the blast.
This is pretty much the same as Ryuko's death that I mentioned before. I'm leaning towards cut.- Before Star finishes him off, Steven actually attempts to crush Star to death, which is a rather gruesome attack for someone like Steven, even if he was in his Pink Steven form.
But it didn't succeed. It's barely even Fridge Horror, let alone Nightmare Fuel.
Edited by Zuxtron on Jun 1st 2021 at 1:12:47 PM
themayorofsimpleton
Likes adorable things
from New Donk City
Likes adorable things
Jun 1st 2021 at 10:41:44 AM
Least favorite thing to see on the wiki: Complaining
If people are edit warring that bad maybe you could consider asking to get the page locked.
Zuxtron
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Jun 1st 2021 at 10:45:55 AM
There hasn't been actual edit warring, thankfully.
themayorofsimpleton
Likes adorable things
from New Donk City
Likes adorable things
Jun 1st 2021 at 10:59:34 AM
Least favorite thing to see on the wiki: Complaining
Oh OK. I can't really help you with the series since I don't watch it but when you do get help, just delete what doesn't fit. If people keep adding it back the page may need to be locked, but for now we'll just see what fits and doesn't, and delete accordingly.
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Jun 1st 2021 at 5:25:29 PM
Thoughts:
- Ryouko dying is fine? It's a well liked character dying painfully, typical, but I'd keep it.
- I would keep Lex's death too, Doom making him crush his own heart is brutal. It could be trimmed down a little though, that quote isn't needed and a bit of that is filler.
- Keep Geese obvs.
- I think keep Mikasa too actually, see Ryouko.
- I sorta disagree with the assertion that Iron Fist's death was one of the tamest to be honest? His body disintegrates as he dies screaming... though it is tamer than most examples of this kinda death. Mixed feelings.
- I think Star murdering all her allies and Steven with the lasers is okay, but the cheerfulness afterwords is... idk maybe?
I think a lot of this maybe depends on whether you think including most of the graphic deaths of characters on this show is okay, which I'm... mostly okay with?
Protagonist characters will generally have some people seeing their deaths as Nightmare Fuel, you know?
Removals:
- I think I'm actually going to remove both mentions of genocides in kids shows actually, it is Nightmare Fuel normally... but both cases are describing something that happens somewhere else and that's sorta unneeded.
- Removing Dummi and the blood contract, that's just really not nightmare-inducing.
- Removing the one's death, lol misrepresentation.
- Removing the watermelon incident, I agree with your assessment.
- Star's voice of the legion is really really tame. This feels like a very stock addition. Same with Steven making an attack attempt, oh no.
Edited by Happyfrybreath on Jun 1st 2021 at 5:28:37 AM
Jun 1st 2021 at 8:59:19 PM
NightmareFuel.Classic Disney Shorts may need a look. For starters, I'll try giving my own opinions on each entry:
Keep
- The Skeleton Dance: The entire short is creepy, but especially the two shots where the skeleton jumps at the camera and seems to devour it. Fills a bit too general, but probably keep; I'm pretty sure most people agree that it's really spooky.
- * The Haunted House: Especially when the head grim reaper skeleton is revealed. Oddly, it is referred to as "ma'am", although it has a male voice. Remove the last sentence for being irrelevant and elaborate more on why the skeleton's scary, but otherwise keep.
"PLAAAAAY!" "I c-can’t play." "PLAAAAAY!" "Y-yes, ma'am." "PLAAAAAY..."
- The Mad Doctor:Has its own Nightmare Fuel page. This cartoon holds a deserved reputation as one of the scariest Disney cartoons, so definite keep.
- Pluto's Judgement Day: Has its own Nightmare Fuel page. Same as The Mad Doctor.
- The Golden Touch: Towards the end, starving because he can't eat anything without his touch turning it to gold, King Midas asks his reflection, "Is the richest king in all the world to starve to death?" In response, his reflection turns into a golden skeleton and nods its head. King Midas, now horrified, tries to flee his castle, only for his shadow to seemingly turn into The Grim Reaper, who makes the finger slicing across the throat gesture to him. Those scenes are extremely disturbing. Keep, but maybe rewrite to be less of a summary.
- The Winged Scrounge: A 1942 propaganda cartoon about fighting off malaria. Complete with a shot where a giant mosquito is peering down over a house and chilling voiceover lines like, "Little does he suspect he's to be the victim of this bloodthirsty vampire!" and, after all is said and done, describing the mosquito as "this tiny criminal, which has assumed the proportions of a monster!" This sounds pretty chilling, and it refers to malaria, so probably keep.
- Chicken Little: The very disturbing ending where the fox devours every chicken, duck and turkey. When the narrator asks him "Hey, wait a minute! This isn't right, that's not the way the story is supposed to end!", the fox just calmly tells him not to believe everything he reads. I wasn't that scared by the scene, but I can see somebody being scared by it, especially since the fox plaaced their bones on the dirt like tombstones.
- Made more disturbing when you think about what it would be like to be in their shoes, panicking, crowded, trapped in a dark cave with a large (to them) carnivore that going to kill and eat them all, and they can't do a thing about it, and no help is coming. This feels like Fridge Horror to me, so maybe it should go.
- Education for Death: Has its own page. Same story as the previous two toons with their own page.
- Defense Against Invasion: This 1943 propaganda cartoon calls for people to be vaccinated, comparing the human body to a city or a country. Then the germs come into a person and, because the person's blood cells don't have enough resistance to the germs, kill the poor guy by swamping the cells! Considering that many of the diseases we are vaccinated against are still serious, this makes for a case of Values Resonance. The way the scene is described plays out as Realism-Induced Horror, and the representation of diseases sounds chilling, so keep.
- Peter and the Wolf: The wolf itself is the main source of scary moments. Maybe remove this for being too general.
- The first appearance of it is especially scary, with its theme playing in the background at the beginning as it snows and we hear Sterling Holloway’s ominous line, “There is also a wolf” after introducing the characters and the instruments they’re portrayed with. Then we see the wolf's footprints in the snow, the camera travels through the woods where we see a silhouette of something between the trees, then more trees group together, then the camera fades to the end of the trees and then it comes out from behind the trees and roars at the audience. I can definitely see this scaring people, keep.
- The green and purple mansions burning to the ground in The Little House. In the same scene, somebody yells out a bloodcurdling "THE ALARM! SOUND THE ALARM!". Miraculously, the Little House, situated right between the two, survives (albeit with some damage done). Remove the last sentence for being too general, but that scene was horrifying for child me.
Mixed
- The Fire Fighters: features a scene where Minnie is seen coughing up smoke and nearly suffocating. Peril scenes seem to not count by default, but the way I see it this still sounds scary.
- The way the Pluto-prototype bloodhounds in "The Chain Gang" loudly bark up close to the screen. It doesn't sound scary, but maybe it does scare some...
- The Gorilla Mystery, a prototype for Donald Duck and the Gorilla that would come in 1944. The basic premise is scary enough: a Killer Gorilla is on the loose in Mickey and Minnie's neighborhood, and then it breaks into Minnie's house, forcing Mickey to go to her rescue. The snarling, fanged, clawed beast is frightening enough, but its actions around Minnie, which are disturbingly reminiscent of a home invader with intentions of rape, are particularly chilling. I can see people being scared of this, but I feel likening the gorilla to a rapist is a stretch.
- Not only does the witch in Babes in the Wood have a potion that can turn children into animals, but she also has a potion that can turn living things to stone. However, the end, where she falls in it and the boy-turned-cat-turned-stone-cat-statue is reverted to a flesh-and-bones boy, makes up for it. The animal potion isn't scary. The stone potion is, but I feel the ending may mitigate the fear.
- Birds in the Spring: The python trying to eat the baby bird. Needs more context.
- The Three Little Pigs: The Big Bad Wolf. In his 1st movie, his single desire is to murder and eat the pigs, and he has an awesome Evil Laugh. In his 2nd movie, he tries to murder and eat Little Red Riding Hood. And in his 3rd movie, he's training his kids to murder and eat the pigs to a song about what you can cook pigs into. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on who you ask), his kids were Retconned into Lil Wolf. In the 3rd movie the Wolf came this close to eating the pigs, having them tied down with apples in their mouths and everything. Remove the sentence about retconning, but otherwise I can see people being scared.
- It's made even worse in the read-along book-and-audio adaptation. The wolf's voice is creepy, I'll give it this.
- It's made even worse in the read-along book-and-audio adaptation
- Gulliver Mickey, where Mickey has to fight off a giant spider who bears a canny resemblance to Pegleg Pete. Give more context on why the spider's scary, or if it's not scary enough, just cut it.
- Brave Little Tailor: The Bad Vibrations and jolting scenery when the giant arrives. I very much doubt it really counts.
- When the giant swallows Mickey who is now inside his throat. I don't think this really counts, but I can give this the benefit of the doubt.
- Motormania is an interesting take on the Jekyll & Hyde concept with the peaceful Mr. Walker trasforming into the dangerously irascible Mr. Wheeler who is an endless source of NightmareFaces. The short is rather comical, but I wouldn't put it out of the question for somebody to be scared of it.
Cut
- Steamboat Willie: While not as bad as other examples, Mickey torturing animals, so that their sounds can be used as musical sounds, is somewhat disturbing. The fact that it's the incredibly kind and familiar Mickey only makes it more disturbing. Characterization Marches On indeed. Early Installment Weirdness or not, it does say "somewhat disturbing", so it probably has to go.
- "The Band Concert"': The scene where the whirlwind devours a cow who wasn't fast enough is not too bad by itself, but the rest of the cartoon is a big Funny Moment, so it comes of as jarring. This seems pretty exaggerated to me.
- The Lone Chipmunks had Chip and Dale subduing Pete by pulling his pinky finger way back. This seems like an exaggeration.
Happyfrybreath
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
Pls stop calling everything Harsher in Hindsight
Jun 1st 2021 at 11:36:18 PM
I would have to see most of those to make a decision tbh.
What's Peter and the wolf doing in Disney shorts though? That's from the Make Mine Music movie isn't it?
ChillyBeanBAM
EW
from Ontario, Canada
EW
Jun 4th 2021 at 10:05:36 AM
First-Person Writing is a personal pet peeve.
This part I've bolded was just added to NightmareFuel.Sesame Street:
- The Christmas special "Elmo Saves Christmas" has the Easter Bunny, who's surprisingly pretty creepy with the uncanny appearance: he's a guy in a bunny suit with a creepy smoker's voice (portrayed by Harvey Fierstein). It kind of makes you wonder how many kids were traumatized by this guy. To be fair, it isn’t Fierstein's fault- that's how he always speaks- but perhaps having the character portrayed by a human instead of a Muppet was taking things too far.
PurpleEyedGuma
Perfectly Average
from Erdrea
Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
Perfectly Average
A Frozen Chicken
Jun 4th 2021 at 10:42:29 AM
Wick Check Project Official Sandbox (TM) / Now with a vandalism page!
Because the stuff on it can be scary to the target audience of babies.
Jun 4th 2021 at 10:54:03 AM
"I like girls, but now, it's about justice."
Admittedly, Harvey Fierstein in an Easter Bunny costume is rather disconcerting. But it's pretty silly to say it has "traumatized many children".
mightymewtron
Horses In Hindsight
from New New York
Relationship Status: Complex: I'm real, they are imaginary
Horses In Hindsight
Jun 4th 2021 at 11:24:05 AM
I run the Nostalgia Critic cleanup so you don't have to!
perhaps having the character portrayed by a human instead of a Muppet was taking things too far.
The way this is worded makes it sound like the Muppets are actors. 
I think the entry itself is fine if you cut out the bolded part and the preceding "how many kids were traumatized" sentence.
Silverblade2
Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Jun 10th 2021 at 12:20:05 AM
First episode of Loki released and NightmareFuel.Loki 2021 is already a mess even with the warning on top.
Episode 1: Glorious Purpose
- Loki not only has to come to terms with the fact that he causes the death of his beloved mother, he also gets to watch Thanos kill the original timeline version of him...complete with a very loud crunch as Original!Loki's neck snaps and TVA!Loki recoils in horror. In-universe reaction. The scene is also mostly played as a Tear Jerker
- The TVA in general counts as this, as a sort of shadowy "Thought Police" who can apprehend people for infractions against a timeline they barely knew existed, seemingly without even knowing they were committing an infraction, at the penalty of immediate death. Couple this with the red tape that surrounds every action the TVA governs despite the fact that there seem to be no governing bodies keeping the TVA themselves accountable and honest, and you have yourself a bonafide bureaucratic "legal" enforcement monster, straight out of Franz Kafka's night terrors. Natter and speculation
- Special note to the reveal that the Infinity Stones are meaningless to them, and they keep different copies in junk drawers to use as paperweights. Driven home by how Loki of all people takes the discovery with 100% seriousness, stricken with deep existential horror at the impossible power he's landed in the middle of. In-universe reaction. The whole "use Inifinity Stones as paperweight" is totally played for comedy
- Miss Minutes' offhandedly mentions that there was an ancient war between the multiverses before the Time Keepers stepped in to prevent all of reality from being destroyed. Considering the power of the TVA, that war makes the Infinity Saga sound as insignificant as ants fighting over an anthill. Fridge Horror
- She also mentions how a re-emergence of another multiverse would result in 'Madness', possibly hinting at the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is a more horror-leaning movie. Speculative troping
- The end of the episode, where we get a glimpse of other Variant!Loki luring a team of Minutemen to their death. The Minutemen arrive on scene in the 1800s to find a futuristic artifact in the middle of a field. One of the Minutemen smells oil and assumes someone went back in time to try and get rich off of it. The audience then gets a glimpse of Variant!Loki standing out in the field wearing a cloak, before slowly lifting a lit lantern and dropping it - igniting the oil soaking the field. Hunter U-92 desperately tries to get to the reset charge his team planted before he's suddenly pulled away off-screen, all set to the sound of his teammates screaming as they burn alive. That one is legitimate. It's the only scene in the episode that's really played for horror
- And note that Variant!Loki doesn't use any of his powers here, just simple traps and trickery. He knows how to work around the TVA's abilities without resorting to his abilities, so imagine what might happen if he decides to use his full power. Fridge Horror. That entry literally begs us to imagine a scenario that doesn't happens there.
- We also have no idea why Variant!Loki is doing this, what happened to him, or how he became so dangerous. Natter. Obviously, we are not going to learn those specifics in later episodes.
Edited by Silverblade2 on Jun 10th 2021 at 11:15:02 AM
AlleyOop
Relationship Status: GAR for Archer
Jun 10th 2021 at 2:02:29 AM
Yep. Cut, cut, CUT.
jandn2014
Hangs around Image Pickin’ a lot
from somewhere in Connecticut
Relationship Status: Hiding
Hangs around Image Pickin’ a lot
Jun 10th 2021 at 3:17:05 AM
there's nobody here
Should we add commented-out notes on all of Loki (2021)’s subpages telling people to not add kneejerk reactions? We already had to pull a poor-quality image from the Tear Jerker page.
ShinyCottonCandy
Yo-yoshi! LEGO-shi!
from LEGO Yoshi's Island
Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
Yo-yoshi! LEGO-shi!
Jun 10th 2021 at 3:19:52 AM
YouTube | SoundCloud
Also, the one that's being kept needs to remove the !s from "Variant!Loki".
We really need to put up a big neon sign or something. That policy was established how many years ago?
Jun 10th 2021 at 3:22:06 AM
"I like girls, but now, it's about justice."
Loki and his actor have a famously impassioned fanbase, so I wouldn't be surprised if we had to end up temporarily locking the pages altogether.
SPACE WHALES
Jun 10th 2021 at 4:44:41 AM
Calling someone a pig is a dumb insult because pigs are cute.
NightmareFuel.Until Dawn is... kind of messy. Which is weird, because it's a horror game and has a lot of Nightmare Fuel moments, you'd think it would be easy. Two main things to note first:
1. There's a lot of Fridge Horror and Uncanny Valley, which is not Nightmare Fuel
2. There are A LOT of jumpscares in this game, some of them are actually pretty good, but some aren't even jumpscares and just noises whenever a scene is quiet, and therefore should not be here.
Oh and by the way, this probably has the dumbest page image I have ever seen, but I already made a separate thread for that.
Until Dawn
- The Uncanny Valley hits this game hard, especially Jessica, Josh, Emily, Mike and definitely Dr. Hill. The facial expressions and the graphics make the game look outstanding, shooting the immersion levels Up to Eleven. However, this also makes any of the possible deaths they endure twice as horrifying to look at. The look of terror on their faces is scary for its realism, as is the final, shocked look on any recently-killed characters. Delete, This game is scary, but not because of their facial expressions, they definitely count as Uncanny Valley, just not really Nightmare Fuel.
- The fact that almost every action has a consequence in this game can make decision-making overwhelming. Do you run, stand still, fight, or hide? Any choice you make could lead you to survival or death without second chances. Keep. You are always on edge playing this.
- Not to mention nearly all decisions are made with no indication as to which is the best one, and no indication that you picked a bad one until later on. Deciding who gets the flare gun for instance. Either character is a good choice, and it isn't until about 10 minutes later you find out the results of your choice. Others you won't learn about until entire CHAPTERS later. Delete. This is fridge horror at best.
- The game autosaves after every choice you make. If you want to make a different one, you have to restart the story entirely. What you do, you have to live with. Delete. Being forced to live with your choices is how all story games like this operate, it's just a regular mechanic of decision-based games like this and is therefore not scary.
- The setting alone is pretty unnerving. Imagine being trapped high in the snowy mountains where no one else can find you or hear you scream. Unsure. The setting is scary, but this might cross into Fridge Horror territory, and also the setting is intentionally cliche, like that was the point of the game was to be like classic horror tales.
- Thanks to the storm, it really doesn't matter even after someone finds out where they are, and that they're in danger. Emily and Matt do eventually get a distress call out using the radio in an old fire tower, but between the snow and high winds, the mountain isn't going to be accessible for anyone else before the next morning. Whether the others find out about the message or not, the fact that rescue is only a few hours away still isn't exactly a hopeful one. The realization of what's really up there with there with them means that a few hours is still far, far too long. Delete. The storm is a bit unnerving, but only because the Wendigos are hiding in it. Also, them not being able to call for help isn't scary... because they literally do. This example even says so. And if you play right everyone gets rescued.
- Emily's entire trek through the mines also counts in terms of setting. They're dark, damp, claustrophobic and filled with seriously creepy sounds as well as glimpses of flames from the Stranger that has been stalking the group. On top of that, it's where the player, as Emily, first encounters clues of what happened to Hannah and Beth, including finding Beth's decomposed yet still preserved head, and also where one finally gets a clear look at the actual threat in the story, the nightmarish Wendigos. Keep. The mines are very creepy.
- Matt's second possible death is pretty gruesome. The Wendigo hooks his jaw to a meat hook, which causes blood to flow into his mouth, showing how quickly he bled to death. Not helping is the fact that the player is treated to a shot of his blood pooling in his mouth and gagging noises as he chokes on it. Not to mention how sudden it is. It also shows the reaches of the Butterfly effect, having one of the triggers be an innocuous choice of leaving the flare gun with Emily and the other being a choice that most people would choose if they want to try to get everybody to survive. Not only that, but if the player takes a completely innocuous choice (that they would probably take if they wanted Matt and Emily's relationship to stay good), then Matt can waste the flare gun anyway. Keep. this is one of the first major brutal deaths in the game that's from the Wendigos. Although maybe shorten the section on the flare gun, the ending part comes across as gushing.
- Dr. Hill is one creepy guy. The questions he asks almost feel like he's manipulating the game based on your fears. What's even creepier is that it's left ambiguous whether he's real or a figment of your imagination and whether he's trying to help or hinder you. His near-constant facial tics are also one of the game's best examples of Uncanny Valley. The way his jaw and lips quirk about when he's not speaking is downright unnerving. Also notice how his office starts to look more and more decrepit with each visit. (It is wherever Josh is at the time of his hallucinations, so the surroundings change as Josh sets up for the prank during the night, or goes to other rooms.) Not to mention that at the end of one of his sessions Dr. Hill turns around only to be faced by Josh, disguised as the Psycho. You expected the sessions to be a bit unnerving, but nobody would have guessed that this would happen. In another session, right after the saw trap, Hill walks over to the window, implying that the exchange is over. Then a flash of light blasts through the window and the good doctor seemingly teleports right in your face, shouting at you. Shorten/rewrite. The first couple sessions are Uncanny Valley and don't belong here, but the later sections are very frightening. Thing is, this example doesn't really go into the nightmarish parts, it mentions the jumpscare, but not the fact that his office becomes covered in things like spiders, snakes, gore, clowns, and a bunch of other creepy stuff.
- The fact that Josh was willing to risk getting people killed just to pull an elaborate prank. Imagine if Josh didn't get the benefit from artistic license and there weren't any wendigos. Chris sticking a .45 with blank rounds up against his head like that could've easily killed him, and if Sam was allergic to whatever drug he stuck her with, she could've died. Then there's what would happen if the saw trap malfunctioned and the saw went to Ashley. Josh's entire hilarious horror prank instantly turns tragic. Keep. Josh's prank is disturbing as all hell.
- Even though none of his machines malfunction, and Chris or Ashley are saved by artistic license (at that distance, Chris would have almost certainly died, and Ashley would have at least had injuries requiring immediate medical treatment), Josh's "prank" still leads to the death of everyone who dies in the game, with the possible exception of Jess. Disabling the cable car would have been a bad idea, even without the Wendigos involved. Delete. Yes Chris' skull would have cracked (I think) but that isn't something that needed to be said twice, this is just rewording the first example.
- The Wendigos, naturally. They are born when a person feeds on another human's flesh and are highly agile, capable of ripping you apart and difficult to kill. You wanna know what's worse? Killing them isn't even always the best option. All those Wendigos that were blown up at the end? It's only giving their spirits the opportunity to infect other people who may wind up trapped in the mountains and forced to eat human flesh. Then there's the idea that the main Wendigo stalking the group for the majority of the game, turns out to be Hannah. The sweet and shy girl from the beginning of the story is now an inhuman monster, hunting down her brother and former friends. Keep. The Wendigos are absolutely terrifying.
- Hannah's fate. After turning out to have survived the fall, she wandered the caves starving for days, and eventually had to eat the remains of her sister to survive, causing her to turn into a Wendigo. At least Beth died instantly from falling off the cliff; Hannah had to suffer for days from both her injuries and hunger.
- And the definitive piece of evidence that lets the group know this happened is the handful of pages Hannah used as a journal while stuck in the caves. It quite effectively captures the deterioration of her mind after she resorts to cannibalism, her entries going from apologies to Beth in handwriting that her friends can recognise as hers, to the feral scrawls of a person giving in to the Wendigo possession. Keep. The journal entry, in particular, is pretty damn frightening to read.
My hands feel unclean... my nails fell out... PUSHED OUT! I am aching... but no more COLD, no more PAIN... I am getting stronger. Hungry... Hungry... HUNGRY!!! - Josh seeing his dead sisters in a hallucination, followed by the giant pig's head and the equally enormous Wendigo head screeching at him. It's hard to watch even with full knowledge that none of it is real, but just imagine what it must have been like for Josh. Being stuck in a phenomenally dangerous situation is bad enough without having to second-guess everything you see. And then, just when you begin to cope with the fact that you're suffering hallucinations... Keep. Josh's hallucinations are creepy and disgusting, to me, this was the scariest part of the game.
Josh: (making no effort to escape) NO! You're not real! YOU'RE NOT!Hannah: (screeches and grabs his head)Josh: EEERRRRAAAGGGHHH!!!!(Hannah smashes Josh's head into paste)
- What's truly scary about the wendigo head is that Josh may have no reason to know what they look like; if Chris knocks him out, he's unconscious when they drag him off. Why is he seeing something he doesn't even know exists in his hallucinations? Quite likely because a wendigo spirit was trying to wear him down from the moment he got tossed into the mines. Even before Hannah decides to spare him, the monsters had already earmarked Josh as a future host. '''Delete. First off this is Fridge Horror, secondly, the head he sees might not even be a Wendigo, it is a large head with glassy/glowing eyes, but if you watch the scene, Josh's hallucinations of his sister's ghosts had the same effect on their eyes. The idea that the Wendigo is planning to make him a host is not supported by anything in-game, the only way to become one is to resort to cannibalism.
- At one point, Ashley hears Jessica's voice screaming for help, but it turns out to be a Wendigo. This shows that Wendigos are able to lure people by impersonating loved ones' voices. Choosing to investigate the voice can result in Ashley's death if the rattling trapdoor is opened. The scene of her possible death is also pretty disturbing. When Ashley's severed head falls to the ground, you can clearly see her eyes moving around and widening in shock, implying that she is, at least for a few seconds, still alive and fully aware of what has just happened to her. It's the same with Chris if he also gets decapitated. Keep. Both Ashley and Chris' deaths here are quite violent and hard to watch.
- There's something unsettling about how easily the Wendigos can pull people apart. They make decapitation look like twisting a celery stick. If one gets hold of you at all, there's flat-out nothing you can do. Their strength alone is bad enough, but it's almost outdone by how blindingly, unbelievably fast they are. Their movement while hunting is so slick and sudden that if it weren't for the game's camera focusing on them, they would be almost impossible to track by eye. You could be staring right at one, only for it to vanish in a blur of movement, and as you're trying to discern where it went you feel stinking breath on the back of your neck... Delete. The part about their strength be moved to the above example that was already about Wendigos. The rest is just inaccurate, if one gets a hold of you, you CAN get away, you just need fire or a gun of some kind, also while they are fast there are plenty of times you can see them walking at normal speed when the game isn't slowed down, so the part about them being impossible to track is wrong. Not to mention flamethrower guy tracked them and even captured several of them for years.
- Josh's behavior because of his mental illness(es) is pretty close to reality, not to mention his terrifying hallucinations. The game is cheesy up to a certain point...but Josh is not part of that if you know that he has a mental condition. He's just barely putting on a front until all hell breaks loose. It's disturbing for people without a mental illness to see and traumatic for those that have them. Just thinking about how long Josh suffered with the guilt of his sisters' deaths and his mental condition is beyond tragic. There is some evidence that he wasn't taking medicine or wasn't taking the right medicine, all just proof of how difficult it is to help and treat those who have mental illnesses. Mental illnesses are still widely misunderstood and brushed off, even by doctors. It's especially misunderstood by fellow people, even friends and family, who might think the sufferer is making mountains out of molehills at best, or that they're making it up to get attention at worst. Matpat did a video on Until Dawn analyzing that Josh was definitely not getting the help he needed. Delete. This is more Tear Jerker mixed with Fridge Horror, Josh's mental illness and behavior is creepy, but once you know the full extent of it, you just feel bad for him. His foreshadowing moments in-game and his breakdown later on when he starts babbling to Chris and Mike in the shed are more unsettling than outright scary.
- The rather sudden and unpreventable death of the Stranger. He has just recently revealed his true colors to the survivors and is currently helping Chris fend off some Wendigos, when one slices his head off. The guy who spent who-knows-how-many years of his life fighting these monsters is now dead. Crap. Keep, like all deaths in the game his will scare the shit out of you.
- The way Ashley will just stand there and coldly watch Chris get decapitated if he considered shooting her in Josh's second trap. Delete. Chris's death is pretty scary here, but not because of Ashley refusing to open the door. Also Word of God confirmed that she didn't keep the door shut out of malice, she was paralyzed with fear, basically, if he doesn't shoot her, she loves him so much that she is able to overcome that fear and open the door. So it's not her wanting Chris to die she's just too afraid to save him.
- The way Chris is killed by the Wendigo if he fails to shoot it. It lands on him, knocking on the ground before grabbing his head while screaming at him. Then, it plunges its fingers into his neck before tearing his head clean off. If this happens due to failing to shoot the Wendigo, unlike the other deaths, we got a long, close up shot of blood pouring out from his head as it lies in the snow. Keep. While not the most violent, this is probably the saddest death.
- When Ashley does open the door but Chris doesn't. After the Wendigo pulls him to the ceiling his locks kick and thrash as blood starts falling down from the air. Thankfully it happens only for about five to seven seconds before his head is ripped off out of view, but after his body and head fall on the ground, we see him open his eyes, still alive before his life ceases. '''Keep. Not only is this death horrible to watch it also has a pretty frightening jumpscare.
- Sam's creepy half-crazed smile while she tells about her experience in the police interview. Delete. Once again, Uncanny Valley. Also this time it's not even that uncanny it's more just sad because it's clear how traumatized Sam is based on her other dialogue in the credits.
Sam: You need to listen to me. I don't care if you believe me or not. Doesn't matter. Because you will. You need to go down to the mines. I've seen what's down there, and I'd give anything to unsee it.
- The creepy ending if everyone survives. After interviewing the characters about what happened, they cut back to the mines where Josh is turning into a Wendigo and is eating the flesh of the Stranger. Someone finds him and he promptly attacks them. This assures the player that the Wendigo have yet to be defeated and that Josh has now turned into one of them. Also, exactly how long was Josh down there before he started gnawing at that head? Was it days, or mere hours? He might have been far, far more deranged than anyone assumed if he indulged in cannibalism with little prompting, but given his outright schizophrenic-level hallucinations and very likely the influence of the wendigo spirit, Josh probably didn't even see the Stranger's corpse as something formerly human, just meat. And that's assuming Wendigo!Hannah didn't leave the body out for him on purpose as some twisted way of making them family again. Keep. Josh as a Wendigo is terrifying, however, I will say that again, the Wendigo spirit is never implied to be influencing him so maybe cut that one line.
- Seeing Josh starting to transform is hard to look at, especially given that his transformation is lopsided. Half of his face is still fairly normal looking (which explains why the police approached him at all), while the other half has started to terribly warp into full Wendigo, including the mangled jaw structure and bulbous glassy eyes. The fact that he is gnawing on The Stranger's face at the end and is implied to have ripped the police apart when they found him is a pretty nasty potential Sequel Hook. Keep. Wendigo Josh is intentionally made to be more disturbing than even the regular Wendigo's.
- It's even worse if Josh is the only one who survives. Nobody else is around to tell the police to investigate the mines, so instead of seeing a team going in to check things out, we still get a shot of Josh eating the Stranger, and after a few moments, he pauses as if he heard something, then looks directly out of the screen, implying that his next meal will be you. Delete. No, he doesn't, he briefly looks at the camera for like a second before fading to black, it's not like he creepily stares at it for a long time.
- Emily's possible death by being shot by Mike. Imagine that you've just done a grueling run through an abandoned mine, and barely escaped with your life, only to have all of your friends and your ex-boyfriend turn on you because of how you were bitten and were (maybe) about to turn into a monster. And then if she gets killed, it turns out there was absolutely nothing to worry about. Emily can die for nothing. Delete/Move. Put this in Tear Jerker, this death isn't scary, just really, REALLY sad.
- If Mike does shoot Emily, he specifically puts a bullet to her face, through the left eye. After she falls dead, Mike is instantly shocked with confusion and remorse. Imagine if he had then stayed long enough to learn the revelation that it was completely unnecessary... Unsure. The part about her being shot in the eye is true, it's quite gory, so maybe keep that part and delete all the rest, as the part about Mike coming back is just Fridge Horror.
- Jess's second possible death. While her first possible death where she falls onto the mine elevator without her jaw is shocking, it happens off screen. With this death, we see the wendigo first stuffing its fingers down her throat, and then ripping off her jaw, causing her head to slump to side and stare right at you with her dead eyes. Hopefully the claws pierced the back of her throat and she was truly dead by that point, because otherwise... Keep. Possibly the most brutal/violent death, I'd say only beaten by Matt's death in the same scene.
- Emily's possible death by being crushed in the grinder. The worst part is that she doesn't go all the way through, the machine crushes her from feet to torso and malfunctions rapidly so you still have time to see her getting the life crushed out of her. She might live just long enough to feel the full pain of having her legs crushed into paste before bleeding out or having her heart give out from shock. Keep. Quite disturbing, although I will note the scene is from the top down so you don't actually see any of her mangled body, but it's still really violent.
- The final scene in the lodge where the "Don't Move" mechanic is milked for all its worth. Just before this whole confrontation, Sam is running to catch up with the rest of the group, and on her way up, it cuts to several of the group just. Standing there. You'd think it's an animation glitch at first, but then you get there and realize there is a pissed off Wendigo in the room with them Special mention goes to the very last one where Wendigo!Hannah is barely three inches from Sam as the former scouts for people and, for several seconds, looks directly at Sam and screams into her ear. Most players probably held their breaths and kept just as still as they had to make Sam do. Keep. This scene is INCREDIBLY tense to play or even just watch. Although maybe remove the "milked for all its worth" part, because you aren't actually forced to do it three times, if you make certain choices you only have to do it once, albeit doing so will kill Mike and possibly Emily/Ashley but still, you aren't forced to do it three times.
- While it's not shown in as much loving detail as Jess's, Matt's third potential death is pretty ugly and shocking. The wendigo knocks him to the ground, then caves his face in completely with a single blow! The way his teeth and eyes are left mangled is NOT pretty. Worse still, his eyes are still moving for about a second after the blow. He lived long enough to feel that blow and the damage it did. Keep/rewrite. Easily the most brutal and gory death in the entire game, take out the line about Jess's being worse, if you don't believe me that his is the worst one just go watch it but warning it's fucking brutal.
- Near the end of the game, after you learn about the wendigos and how unnatural they are, you are forced to go through a segment of chest-deep frozen water. Being nearly immobile and unable to see beneath the surface is nerve wracking, and you just know that something is going to come up from beneath. When you finally do get out, you breathe a sigh of relief, only to open the next door and have HEADS COME ROLLING OUT. And these heads don't belong to generic stock characters either. You'll always see the Stranger's head roll out, already half-eaten. But if any of the teenagers have died, their heads will roll out, too; Jess, Matt, Chris... people who you got to know, actually played as, and who then died because of your actions. The camera then pans back to the water, to show a wendigo neck deep in sub-zero water, rock still, watching you intently. It slides under the surface with barely a ripple, and you realize it had been in the pool with you the entire time. What the still-living characters will see after they go through the door isn't much better; It's a crude, makeshift slaughterhouse, with human remains hung up like beef carcasses. If they were random victims, it would have been bad enough, but seeing a Player Character reduced to a haunch of meat can be pretty jarring. You can't help but wonder how long it will be before you take your place alongside them... Keep. What a horrible scene...
- The sheer level of Body Horror present in this game is pure unladen Nausea Fuel, from the ways everyone can be horrendously killed to the pictures you can find of one of the miners going through the transformation into a Wendigo. First picture is fairly normal, even if he looks a little emaciated; the second picture shows that his hair has started falling out, his neck has stretched out, and his face is drawn and gaunt with the beginnings of a Wendigos jaw structure forming; the final picture has him in full Wendigo form and screaming into the camera. God knows how they were even able to get that last picture without being ripped to shreds, although it's probably better not to think about. Keep/Rewrite. The part about the miner is right but the beginning sentences about Body Horror and Nausea Fuel are unnecessary since most of the actually valid examples are of characters being murdered, and therefore this is something that doesn't really need to be said again. At the very least these two should be separate examples.
- The recording of one of the subjects turning into a Wendigo. It's implied that he was given a small piece of human flesh, but it's enough to turn him into a monster. They slowly start changing and are able to get out of their restraints and attack the nurse responsible for the transformation. Keep. Don't really need to explain this one, it's just terrifying.
- Shooting the squirrel. What remains of it is almost vomit-inducing if you have a weak stomach, thanks to how far graphics have come. Delete. Gross? Yes. Fucked up and sad? Yes. Scary? Not really...
- One of the clues you can find is a doctor's suicide note. It's found next to his decomposed corpse, but that's not the worst part. The note reveals that the patients had all transformed into Wendigos and were rampaging through the building. The doctor decided that suicide was a much better fate than being torn apart by the creatures. Just the thought of being trapped in a confined space with those things... Unsure. I'm stumped on this one, it is scary and dark for them to include this, but it also kind of comes across as Fridge Horror, I really don't know.
- That's not just a doctor. That's Jefferson Bragg, the man who owned both the mine and the sanitarium. So in other words, the guy responsible for all of this. Imagine being cornered, surrounded by flesh-eating, lightning-fast monsters Immune to Bullets and knowing every bit of it is your fault. No wonder he drank poison. Unsure. Same as above.
- True or an exaggeration (though the mutilated wolf in the mental hospital after more wendigoes escape indicate it is probably the former), the Stranger's description of how the wendigoes kill paints a seriously disturbing picture. First they make sure you are immobilized, unable to fight back or run away. Then they peel your skin off, piece by piece, before they really dig in and begin devouring your internal organs. Cruel and Unusual Death indeed. And he makes a point of saying that you WILL be ALIVE to feel all of this. If Hannah didn't recognize Josh when she kidnapped him from the cabin, it's possible that she had such a fate in mind once she caught back up to him, if he hadn't A) recognized her or B) prompted her to kill him on the spot by screaming. Keep. I was shocked at the fact we actually see this, but I am glad it's in the game since all of the other on-screen deaths from the Wendigos are pretty much instant.
- It's very likely that this was the fate Hannah had in mind for Jess, too, before Mike chased her down through the mines. After that point, she seems reluctant to use it as a strategy, and probably only attempted it with Josh out of an incorrect belief that his being tied up meant that no one would come to find him. Delete. While this may be possible, it's unclear how much humanity the Wendigos retain, especially Hannah since she does spare Josh. Also even then this seems more like Fridge Horror.
So I think there are two things we should do:
1. Any of the examples deleted because of them being Uncanny Valley should be moved to a page that is for Uncanny Valley examples specifically. This could possibly also be done for Nausea Fuel.
2. All of the examples that are just characters being murdered in horribly violent ways should be put under one example, like this:
- Characters get murdered in this game
- Jess dies if Mike is too slow
- Matt kills a deer and the deer want revenge
- Emily falls into a meat grinder
I really just need input from you guys, on whether we should make an Uncanny Valley or Neasua Fuel page and also a few examples I was unsure about whether they should be kept or not.
Edited by marshenwhale on Jun 10th 2021 at 4:45:44 AM
ChillyBeanBAM
EW
from Ontario, Canada
EW
Jun 10th 2021 at 6:45:39 AM
First-Person Writing is a personal pet peeve.
Not to mention the rampant spoiler tags.
Short and mad.
Jun 10th 2021 at 8:53:12 PM
*Rubs nose*
Crash Bandicoot has a lot of NF subpages, so there'll be a lot of cleaning to do. I'll start with these on NightmareFuel.Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy:
- Some death animations are this, full stop:
- While seeing Crash being disintegrated in future levels was pretty unnerving in the original Warped already, the remaster ramps up nightmare factor by seemingly disintegrating Crash from the inside. To make matters worse, this death animation was also retconned into the first game's fight against Cortex.
- When Crash is sliced by swordsmen in medieval levels, instead of his legs running away like in the original, his torso falls to the ground with the cut visible in full detail. It's intended to be Played for Laughs, but to some it can be very disturbing.
- The mummies in the Egyptian levels shake Crash much more violently than in the original game when they grab him, to the point that his body literally goes limp in the mummy's arms. Not even Coco is spared the expense of this graphic death. Worse yet, dying this way is required for one of the trophies.
These are all played for laughs and aren't graphic. Yeah, you can see the wound when Crash gets sliced in half (skip to 3:53), but it isn't dripping with blood or anything, and it's barely visible. Permission to cut?
Silverblade2
Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Silverblade2
Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Jun 11th 2021 at 12:53:41 PM
This has been recently added on Loki
- The entire concept of the TVA. They know everything about your personal history, and will happily erase you from time for diverting from the "sacred timeline". Said diversions, if the Miss Minute short is accurate, can be as minor as being late to work. They go after such dangerous alternate universe versions of people that they consider Loki, hot off the heels of his attempt to take over Earth, a total nobody. They've pruned off so many potential futures, good and bad, that they use the all-powerful Infinity Stones as paperweights. And all of it is, to them, treated with the same boredom and repetition of a desk job. It's no small wonder that Loki, once he realizes just how dangerous the TVA is, just immediately breaks as he realizes how little he's worth on a cosmic level to these people.
Total posts: 4,177
I think the BOLD, italics and general puffery should be removed altogether.
Just state "they make a face and it's creepy".