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.
- 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
Angry babby
Uh, the same general page cleanup we always do?
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yes, cut IMO
Now a lurker. Thanks for everything. | he/him
How does everyone feel about my Crashbox analysis from a few pages ago? Anyone agree with my assessments? Any disagreements?
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Jul 24th 2021 at 12:19:50 PM
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper Wall
Obsessively adds images to character pages.
I meant what specific pages did we review.
Edited by Spidey on Jul 24th 2021 at 1:47:50 PM
"Unite GUN/BAZOOKA/LAUNCHER/TANK!"
Angry babby
Not to be rude, but you could look back at the pages to see what we've mentioned since you've been gone. We've talked about a lot of pages and I don't remember how long you've been gone.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
I would like to mention that there is Deviant Art, which I believe can be cut for troping the users’ stuff.
Edited by Delibirda on Jul 27th 2021 at 2:23:22 PM
"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
Angry babby
Pretty sure we're allowed to use creator/website pages to trope works without pages.
Obsessively adds images to character pages.
Oh, I see. Sorry about that.
From Masters of the Universe: Revelation:
The Forge at the Forest of Forever
- As this tumblr post points out; Adam was in the middle of restoring the magic that created the Universe when Skeletor stabbed him and took the sword of power. So not only does Skeletor now possess the power of Grayskull, but its possible he could now remake the whole of reality in his image... Holy hell.
Fridge Horror, I presume?
Yes, it's literally the cliffhanger of the season
Very Spooky
More so speculation than Fridge Horror, but it should go either way.
back lol
Katamari Damacy has the following entries:
- The screams of trapped citizens as their workplace is rolled up into a gigantic ball of junk can be shudder-inducing.
- And after the scenario ends, the king either transforms the clump into a planet or blows it up into stardust, people and all!
- The Campfire level in We ♥ Katamari where your Katamari is on fire and you have to roll up fuel for it. It prevents you from rolling up people and animals (they "just" run away while engulfed in flames), but does let you roll up Second Cousin Kinoko. On the other hand, the level in BK and KF where you aim for heat does let you roll up hapless humans...
- Katamari Forever's "Last Chaotic Ambiance" music is this. Whhhhhy, why, oh why, oooohhh whyyyyyy *shudders*
- Not to mention that other level in We ♥ Katamari where your Katamari is a sumo wrestler and you're rolling up food items for the sumo to eat and gain weight. There are no boundaries.
- If you lose in the first game, you're taken to a screen where the King talks down to the Prince, saying what a disappointment he is, while a lightning storm and heavy rain take place. Every time lightning cracks, the King's figure is seen in various threatening positions.
- The King's punishments get progressively worse with each new game. In We ♥ Katamari, his silhouette looms over you, completely black on a blackened screen, with the disappointed fan sitting on his shoulder, and he rapidly fires lasers from his eyes, which fill the screen and can't be dodged. In Me & My Katamari, he ties the Prince up like a punching bag and begins beating him senseless. In Beautiful Katamari, he puts the Prince onto his pool table, and begins firing billiards at him. Finally, in Katamari Forever, he rains meteors down from the sky while he sits upon his throne.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
These all seem like stretches. The game is a comedy about creating stars and planets. None of these examples are taken seriously in context and they definitely aren't freaky enough to leave an impact. The only one that might work is the last one, because the punishments are pretty intense.
Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 30th 2021 at 10:20:36 AM
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
kiby :]
I'm bored, so I decided to expand a NightmareFuel.GameTheory entry that caused me to be creeped out for quite a while. Haven't done this in a while, so I might be a little rusty.
- The Polybius video starts with a disclaimer mentioning how disturbing the topics brought up in said video are, and then quickly dives into unsettling visuals, such as blood dripping down images at certain parts. The topics of the video itself aren't much better, as he discusses the true purpose of Polybius, being a secret government experiment covered up after cases of memory loss and other conditions became widespread.
Suggestions? I haven't watched the video in a while, and to be honest, the thought of watching said video again makes me uneasy.
(Don't) take me home.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Sounds good to me.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
kiby :]
Re-added it in, citing this thread.
(Don't) take me home.
While South Park has questionable examples here and there the entry for the "Sexual Harassment Panda" episode is overall one of the most ridiculous entries for a Nightmare Fuel page I've ever seen.
- "Sexual Harassment Panda" is an exercise in stupidity at best. Let us count the ways.
- First, the title character tells kids that they should sue one another in court in order to get rid of sexual harassment. And this is after five hours of showing the children ways to commit sexual harassment.
- The first case just happens to be Cartman vs Stan and the school with Kyle's Dad, Gerald representing Cartman for Stan calling him an ass-sucker. Cartman ends up winning and taking half of Stan's belongings.
- However, things quickly spiral out of control with the lawsuits piling up, the Broflovskis getting richer, and the school system getting poorer to the point that the students have no desks and Mr. Garrison has to write on the chalkboard with a rusty nail.
- Eventually the case of Everybody vs Everybody is heard. This happens to take the issue to the extreme which is SOP for the series.
- Even the way Kenny is killed is surreal as he holds a magnet which is pulled into a fan that then chops him into many bloody pieces.
- Sexual Harassment Panda’s theme song can be a little unsettling, since it’s sung in a muffled voice, as if sung by someone wearing a very thick mask.
- Mr. Morse, the actor who plays Sexual Harassment Panda, is so deeply into character that he barely responds to his real name and thinks he IS a panda. While Tuong Lu Kim aka Dr. Janus is played for laughs, this situation comes off as a little disturbing.
The only things that could be considered scary are Kenny's death and Mr. Morse's identity crisis that makes him think he's really a panda. Everything else is not scary in the slightest, not even in a Fridge Horror sense.
Redmess
That opening sentence also seems to indicate that this is more about complaining about stupidity than about describing scary things.
Optimism is a duty.
Should we axe it?
"Listen up, Marina, because this is SUPER important. Whatever you do, don't eat th“ “DON'T EAT WHAT?! Your text box ran out of space!”
I think we should (apart from Kenny's death and maybe the "panda's" identify crisis).
About Mickey Mouse (2013), cut the page. Only the "House of Tomorrow" examples seem to be valid so move those to the general Disney page.
Also keep Kenny's Death from that episode and cut the rest. South Park really needs some cleaning.
Redmess
How is Kenny's death nightmare fuel, exactly? He used to die Once an Episode, after all.
Optimism is a duty.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
I don't remember that episode being even remotely scary. As says, Kenny dies so much that you easily get desensitized. Remember that South Park is for adults, so it needs to be horrifying by grown-up standards.
Angry babby
Kenny's deaths vary in graphic intensity. Some are cartoony but others I'll admit to being creepy. Him getting shredded by the fan is on the fence but I find it fairly disturbing.
Also, even with adult standards in mind, South Park had a massive Periphery Demographic of tweens. I get the "adult standards" aspect but it feels weird to take that out of context when even the show itself has satirized that fact. Plus, this was before it was common for adult animated shows to go overboard with the gore.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Sorry I was gone for awhile, what did I miss?
"Unite GUN/BAZOOKA/LAUNCHER/TANK!"