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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
It's gone. Thanks Burke.
Edited by themayorofsimpleton on Apr 21st 2023 at 7:50:42 AM
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Unfortunately I know nothing about RWBY so I can’t help.
I question the latest addition to NightmareFuel.Looney Tunes Cartoons.
- A mild example, but "Crumb And Get It" could come off as Unintentional Uncanny Valley due to the strange designs, oddly slower pacing and gags, and the infamous W-7 intro and outro being used for this short.
Mild indeed. At MOST the fact that it is very different may startle at first. But a plot about Daffy trying to feed more birds at the park than Porky? Not scary.
Edited by AlmightyKingPrawn on Apr 24th 2023 at 9:09:34 AM
She/her. Profile pic is by Richard Michael Gomez @StarmansArt. Please watch Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. https://youtu.be/Vm92JNgPbqk
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
Nightmare Fuel needs to cause more than a mild reaction. Cut it.
NightmareFuel.The Super Mario Bros Movie could have some clean-up. Most of the page is either comparisons between the stakes in the movie and the games and Fridge Horror. This entry in particular sounds like a stretch:
- Just the beginning of the film sets up the mood from then on by introducing the audience to (of all things) Francis the Dog. Brief elaboration. Mario & Luigi's first official job was fixing a simple leak at a wealthy couple's home. Luigi accidentally steps on and breaks Francis's bone, and the dog gives him one hell of a Death Glare. As the two begin their quick fix, Francis shuts the door and tries to maul Mario and Luigi! For anyone young or old that has witnessed dog attacks, has been through one, or suffers from claustrophobia (due to the tight space of the bathroom) and/or cynophobia, this scene gets a bit intense and raises a bit of alternate dark takes on what would have happened if the two plumbers weren't as quick and nimble in that situation.
I haven't seen the film, but from my impression, the only scene intended to be really scary for the target audience is when Luigi falls in the Darklands. Anything else is pretty mild, even for the young audiences.
Edited by good-morning on Apr 29th 2023 at 9:46:59 AM
oh hey how are you doing?
It does seem like a lot of Fridge Horror is on that page, including stuff that even I never thought about while watching.
I'd keep Kamek torturing Toad separate of the rest of the Family Unfriendly Violence entry, Bowser's actions minus game comparisons and his crush on Peach (which is 100% played for laughs), Luigi getting chased by the Dry Bones minus the fridge, Lumalee, the Maw-Ray, and MAYBE the Blue Shell explosion. Everything else but especially Francis the dog and the "oh no Mario is in a dangerous construction site"? Easy cut.
Edited by AlmightyKingPrawn on Apr 25th 2023 at 12:11:50 PM
She/her. Profile pic is by Richard Michael Gomez @StarmansArt. Please watch Fraggle Rock: Back to the Rock. https://youtu.be/Vm92JNgPbqkDoes anyone have any Nightmare Fuel ideas for Looney Tunes Cartoons? I'll be honest, the entire page is a little outdated...
Legendary hero and big gamer. Animation is awesome.Like suggestions for examples? That's not what this thread's for.
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.Is the NightmareFuel.The Super Mario Bros Movie page better now? Can more stuff be cut, or should some parts be reverted? I didn't feel confident enough to reword some of the entries that remained, as I haven't seen it.
Edited by good-morning on Apr 26th 2023 at 9:02:48 AM
oh hey how are you doing?Can somebody please explain why the Bomber Bill example was cut? There’s nothing “Fridge Horror” about it and the Death Glare it gives Mario is genuinely pretty unexpected and scary enough and it’s not really Played for Laughs at all. Sure, you could FIND the moment funny hence why it’s on the Funny page, but it does not seem like it was intentionally made to be purely Played for Laughs. Seriously, what’s the problem here exactly?
- During the scene when Mario, using the Tanooki Suit, attempts to stop the Bomber Bill from destroying the Mushroom Kingdom which is treated just like a nuclear missile strike. Mario decides to get its attention by smacking it in the eyeball and how does the Bomber Bill react? By becoming absolutely furious, giving Mario a pretty terrifying and nasty death glare and then immediately turning its attention to Mario and zooming right after him at full speed, clearly wanting the plumber dead.
Edited by Fireball246 on Apr 27th 2023 at 11:22:00 AM
I don't understand why Bowser's crush on Peach is taken off the Nightmare fuel page. While it is played for laughs, there is also some realistic horror about it too, as his crush on Peach comes across as more of a lustful obsession rather than genuine affection, which reminds me of some dangerously entitled people out there in the world who won't take no for an answer. This is evidenced by his willingness to threaten the lives of her people and her kingdom if she doesn't comply to his demands and then trying to kill her once she rejects him at the altar.
You can maybe focus on him threatening her and his kidnappees at the altar, but most of what you're describing is Fridge Horror. You can't honestly list Bowser's R&B love song as Nightmare Fuel by lumping his entire crush under one entry.
Edited by mightymewtron on Apr 27th 2023 at 1:20:14 PM
I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.

From NightmareFuel.Super Smash Bros:
I fail to see how this could scare anyone. Normally I'd say "maybe this scared someone" since this is a YMMV item, but IIRC NightmareFuel.Gran Turismo got cut for being entirely examples like this one. Keep, or remove?
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