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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
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
You think? I actually thought the Lovecraftian wedding website could count since even Jack seemed unsettled whilst reading it. Top Ten Youtubers meanwhile was definitely just played for laughs.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
I don't consider the Lovecraftian wedding site to be Nightmare Fuel because it’s a fan-creation obviously made to incite some sort of reaction from Jack (a lot of YIAY submissions do this) and its absurd premise of turning a IRL wedding into horror. It also has some comedic tidbits like listing a Pay Pal fund and giving Google Map directions to Hell.
Edited by LazyHazy on Jan 25th 2019 at 9:36:20 PM
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Good point. I guess I just thought that was one someone could legitimately find scary.
But, for being all Played For Laughs, I'll put em all in the traaaaash.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
The new episode of RWBY is now free, and this example was added.
Seeing Red
- Cordovin's misuse of the mech ultimately causes a horde of Grimm to invade Argus. The shot of dozens of Manticore and Sphinx Grimm descending from the skies is a particularly startling cliffhanger.
I'm not sure I'd call it "startling". Sure, there are a bunch of monsters, but we all know that the good guys will probably defeat them next week. I'd be surprised if anyone was actually scared by this.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Yup. Cut.
The RWBY finale came out yesterday for FIRST members. The same troper I mentioned in this post again dumped the new episode onto the page, containing scene summaries instead of even trying to meet the trope, and with the same edit reason as before ('Adding an episode's core'). He's done this for every single episode, and it looks like he's doing this on other Moments pages, too.
I've removed everything except for one. That one isn't really an example either but might possibly be salvageable with an extensive rewrite. All of the others were either speculation about the potential consequences of the scene or they were just scene summaries, and one example that was, to put it kindly, Fridge at best.
Edited by Wyldchyld on Jan 27th 2019 at 8:13:10 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
Did said user get a talking-to about how they shouldn't keep automatically dumping a plot summary of every new episode into the Nightmare Fuel page with no regards as to whether it is Nightmare Fuel?
Musician/Composer
Maybe a PM would work?
He/His/Him. No matter who you are, always Be Yourself.
Chronic lore addict
I mentioned this in another thread, but if it's a single troper causing a host of issues, please bring it to ATT, where it'll have better visibility and a higher chance of intervention.
Kong: Skull Island has a huge folder of...pre-release examples.
The Protomen enhanced my life.
NightmareFuel.WATATEN An Angel Flew Downto Me exist and going by the examples it looks more creepy then genuine nightmare fuel. Even the picture isn't that nightmarish.
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
First order would be to delete any of these pre-release examples that are redundant with something from the actual movie. If something is exclusive to promotional materials, it might be worth keeping.
Everything on the page reads like it's 100% Played for Laughs. I don't think anything on there is remotely salvageable.
Found this on YMMV.Syobon Action:
- Nightmare Fuel:
- Some of the death messages, such as: "You shouldn't have eaten that!" "Die in a painful death!" "I wanna fuse into lava..." and many more.
- Also, if you run into a dangerous cloud, it will say "How delicious!", implying it may have eaten Syobon.
- The Halloween theme replaces coins with hearts, which produce a Heartbeat Soundtrack when collected.
Never played this game before but none of this seems particularly scary, except maybe the Heartbeat Soundtrack one, but even that one seems more creepy than outright terrifying.
Edited by Primis on Jan 28th 2019 at 10:23:20 AM
The 2003 TMNT cartoon has its own Nightmare Fuel page:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003
It needs some rewriting, but there are some good Nightmare Fuel episodes of that series: Insane In the Membrane, Same As It Never Was and the Darkness Within.
Also there is this, that outlines the Nightmare Fuel for the X-Men comics and animated series:
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Yeah, those are a stretch.
The Iron Giant seems pretty weak.
They're gone.
don't ask me about my niche
Johnny English only has one example. Should we cut it?
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Yeah, move the example to YMMV.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
I was surprised at how little there was for the new episode of RWBY, but there was this single example which I removed due to being blatant Fridge Horror:
Our Way
- The Leviathan is referred to as a Leviathan-class Grimm, implying that there are enough Grimm like it to consider it a category, despite the Sea Feilong that Blake and Sun fought back in Volume 4 having been implied to have been at the extreme high end of known Grimm sightings by the Captain.
Edited by Zuxtron on Feb 2nd 2019 at 8:47:17 AM
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
This was added to NightmareFuel.Mortal Kombat 11:
- Geras, a newcomer to the series, shows his credentials by delivering two punches so powerful they straight up cleave through the opponent’s flesh like it wasn’t even there. How does he finish? By palm-striking the back of their head so hard their face and brain flies off.
Of all the currently known fatalities, nearly everyone in the fandom agrees that Geras' is the least impressive. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, Mortal Kombat is already known for its extreme violence, so the standards for something to qualify as Nightmare Fuel are much higher. A few punches followed by cleanly knocking someone's brain from their skull doesn't seem to make the cut when in the same game, Baraka can viciously rip off your face then messily impale your brain before eating it.
Also, the pothole to Up To Eleven is probably misuse.
Agree. MK is well known for its gore so something like that, i thought it was a brutality, isn't that all that nightmarish
Edited by WhirlRX on Feb 6th 2019 at 9:00:58 AM
Does anyone have any opinions on the Nightmare Fuel pages I brought up here?
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=15046601260A53602600&page=34#comment-837
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Sorry 'bout that.
Okay, yeah, definitely at least remove the joke-y examples.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Cut them all. The "Top Ten YouTubers" skit is the only one that comes close to qualifying and even that has a not-scary ending.