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
If that's what it takes to stop the misuse problem, then so be it.
Guys how cool would it be if Super Megaforce had a green ranger...- Apparently, the reason why elections have been permanently canceled is because IRL Failbetter [the creators] got death threats involving 'rigged elections'. Considering the events in the 2020's surrounding a slew of rejected candidates who then 'contested' their losses to the point of ridiculousness with their cult-like crowds, one wonders if Failbetter took the death threats seriously based on who they came from...
Is this some kind of Fridge? I'm inclined to cut it.
that's VideoGame.Fallen London, right? absolutely misuse. "we're not doing this anymore because people can't be mature about it" does not need any extra outside pressure to be valid. it's Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things, not any stripe of NF.
Berserk Button: misusing Berserk Button
Plus it violates the Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement.
One of these days, all of you will accept me as your supreme overlord.I think we should take a look at Daria. Most examples are either Fridge Horror or Played for Laughs.
Edited by turbo50 on Aug 3rd 2022 at 2:39:35 PM
From YMMV.Shakira:
- Nightmare Fuel:
- Her incredible flexibility when dancing, especially in the "She Wolf" video, is seen by some as disturbingly inhuman.
- The clip for "La Tortura" not only features the biggest Fan Disservice on her career (chest shouldn't move that way! Also, what with all those grease?), but also has a duet with Spanish singer Alejandro Sanz in his ugliest.
- Her guest appearance on the Disney Channel Kid Com Wizards of Waverly Place. In this episode it was revealed that Shakira... is really a fat, balding middle-aged male wizard who's been using magic to fake being an international pop sensation and sex symbol. Who thought this was a good idea?
None of these things are really scary, right?
Avatar by Butterscotch Arts. Used under license.The first two look like NRLEP violations, at least. The third is from a work of fiction, but it sounds too ridiculous to be scary.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 6th 2022 at 8:43:37 AM
I got a rock for Halloween.So I found NightmareFuel.Pokemon Glitches. Technically, none of these are intentional parts of the games, so how should they be handled?
That page came up a few years ago and it was decided that it falls under Accidental Nightmare Fuel (whose examples are listed under just Nightmare Fuel, since Accidental Nightmare Fuel is a Definition-Only Page), but if you object to some part(s) of the page, I don't see why you couldn't list your analysis of the page.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 7th 2022 at 1:09:10 PM
I got a rock for Halloween.I think they should go. If Characters.Pokemon Glitches was rendered defunct because they're not intentional characters, I don't think NF based on them should stay.
I agree. The Characters page was listing Glitch Entities like they're proper characters, while the Nightmare Fuel page is, as I said, listing them as Accidental Nightmare Fuel, which is unintentional by definition.
Note that this isn't necessarily a vote in favor of keeping the page. I'm just saying that the fact that the Character page was removed doesn't mean we have to scrub other pages that discuss the games' glitches.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 8th 2022 at 8:22:07 AM
I got a rock for Halloween.I say keep it. We lumped Accidental Nightmare Fuel in with intentional Nightmare Fuel, so if it's scary, it stays. And some of those glitches are quite creepy, especially to a kid playing the game for the first time. (Hell, I was a teenager playing X/Y and Alpha Sapphire and the glitchy GTS faces scared me.)
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Yeah, the glitches are objectively in the finished product, so it's not like they're meta. We just can't act like they're intentional, even if memetically people treat Missingno as a mon.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallNightmareFuel.Sonic The Hedgehog IDW has Speculative Troping issues (lol it's funny cause it's a comic book) and bold italics emphasis problems. Yeesh.
"Dr. Starline, a Loony Fan of Eggman and his work, is a psychotic No-Nonsense Nemesis who excels at torture and is more willing to kill people than his one-time idol. If not for his more comedic traits, he'd definitely be a Complete Monster."
"This same exchange reveals that Eggman's obsession with Sonic is probably the only thing that's keeping the mad doctor in check. He casually reveals that he has the means, weapons, and resources to crush Sonic and any other resistance all at once in seconds if he chooses to. The only reason he doesn't is that he wants a satisfying end to his nemesis rather than a quick one. Yeesh..."
"Starline's interrogation of Belle, which doubles as a Tear Jerker. Not only does it prove how thoroughly he's ruined the poor girl's life, but the whole thing plays out like a rape scene. Yeesh!
- Belle waking up to find herself strapped to an operating table while Starline roots through her head. Due to her lifelike appearance, the procedure resembles a lobotomy. Worse still, Dr Starline is also wearing her hat just to rub it in.
- To replicate Belle's soul code, Starline mashes her Berserk Button to provoke an emotional reaction—including a casual exposé about how he and Metal Sonic erased Eggman's Mr. Tinker persona. Belle loses it upon hearing this and rages at Starline for a good page or two, marking the first time she's shown losing her temper. We even get an Extreme Close-Up of her face as she snaps, just for good measure.
"Four of Issue #50's covers give off some disturbing vibes, hinting in advance that its events will be Serious Business.Starline on the D and RI-A covers wear the face of a man who's Lost. His. Mind. Yeesh..."
"Not helping is that Issue #53 and Issue #54's descriptions include adjectives that describe Surge as "more powerful", and Sonic and Tails being "no match for her this time around." respectively. And considering the fact she handles a Wisp in Issue #54's Cover A, might we be seeing a new Darkest Hour (not like the Metal Virus arc, but still one nonetheless)?"
Edited by lalalei2001 on Aug 18th 2022 at 12:10:06 PM
The Protomen enhanced my life.I looked at the iCarly page and a lot of the examples strike me as people exaggerating things. Here are some examples that stuck out to me:
- iWanna Stay with Spencer: If Carly hadn't ducked, the hammer that flew off Spencer's fan of hammers almost certainly would have killed Carly, with a worldwide audience to see it. Granddad Shay definitely had every reason to be concerned about Carly staying with Spencer.
- Chuck's little brother, Chip. While Chuck was a Jerkass with a vendetta against Spencer, he wasn't scary, just vicious and aggressive. At the very least, he only focuses on Spencer and is civil with Carly. Chip, however, has a very well done Death Glare, wants revenge on Spencer for getting Chuck busted and thrown in military school... and is just as good as his brother at beating on Spencer. And he's the little brother.
- Father McGirthy getting stuck in the floor. Given that he’s morbidly obese, who knows how long he was there?
We've been through the page before, I think, I don't know if those exact examples were there though.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallI'd say the first one counts. It's a plot point that Spencer's device nearly took Carly's head off and that's scary to a kid.
I remember Chip being creepy but the example doesn't go into enough detail on how he's a Creepy Child besides the Death Glare.
The last one sounds like Fridge Horror.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

Like the RWBY treatment?
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall