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
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
Some of the page might qualify as Accidental Nightmare Fuel (which does go on Nightmare Fuel pages), but the example you brought up is one of the worst Nightmare Fuel examples I've ever seen in my life.
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
'Sup, guys, I'm ready to get back to work again.
That needs to burn. It's atrocious.
Showtime!
Yeah, nuke that from orbit
Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel
May as well get rid of it myself.
A Kitsune Balancing Act
That sounds like something out of a Caustic Critic review
I was thinking about putting a no Fridge Horror notice on all NF pages, since it's the thing I come across the most, like the Smash Ultimate page, as well as some others.
Edited by WhiteCheddaPikachu on Apr 29th 2019 at 9:30:31 AM
Sturgeon's Law is too YMMV for page examples, so WHY is it not a YMMV trope!?
Showtime!
Sounds like a good idea
Short-Term Projects herald
Honestly, I think it makes sense to have a banner much like Dethroning Moment subpages listing rules: they must be memorably scary, no Fridge Horror, Spoilers Off.
Contains 20% less fat than the leading value brand!
NightmareFuel.Avengers Endgame could need som work. The image is Just A Face And A Caption (seriously, I just see New York in fog) and there are some dubius examples. I just removed an entry that literally started with " While it's Played for Laughs in the movie and thankfully things turned out alright".
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Hmmm... Endgame being what it is, I fear any cleanup effort would get wasted in the rush of edits. Maybe a sandbox for the time being, with the changes added once the hype cools down? Just seems like less of a headache, even if it's an extra few steps.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
Avengers Endgame is an Edit Hotspot right now because it is recent and the hype/attention surrounding it is huge. There would also be risks of edit wars if some tropers keep on deleting stuff that others added.
I'd say wait for the hype to cool down after months. Only then could we perform some clean-up.
Edited by DanteVin on May 2nd 2019 at 5:40:03 PM
With Great Power, Comes Great Motivation
Short-Term Projects herald
The image should be mentioned in Image Pickin'... although it might make sense just to say "no pic until home release".
Contains 20% less fat than the leading value brand!
Big Catch, Sparkle Edition
Agreed.
Otherwise, yeah, might as well table Endgame for now. If we take action we'll just be causing drama.
Currently Working On: Incorruptible Pure Pureness
On Pokemon Go I found these, which sound more frustrating than scary
- Speaking of more realistic Adult Fears, having any rare Pokémon run away from you can only be described as hell on earth. Be it a high IV Legendary, a nearly maxed, weather boosted high IV and valuable Pokémon (For example, a lv35 Swinub or Blissey) flee from first throw, or even worse, an Unown fleeing instantly can only be described as Personal hell. Bonus if you used Gold Razz Berries, threw a perfect curved ultra ball excellent and it STILL FLEES, or in Raid boss cases, throw 12 Gold Razz curve excellents on the legendary only for it to pop out after 2 shakes on each throw, then having it flee.
- Remember that there is no way to get around this and it basically gives you a sense of a lack of control around your surroundings. This is truly the Despair Event Horizon nobody wants to experience.
- Another Adult Fear is accidentally TMing an exclusive or Legacy Move. Legacy moves are moves that cannot be obtained after a certain period of time or only available during an event, and after that period of time, you will be unable to find a Pokémon with that move, and you will also be unable to TM it since it is not in the game's coding. To make things worse, some Legacy Moves can make a Pokémon much stronger than the usual specimens. Therefore, TMing a powerful Legacy Move such as Meteor Mash on Metagross accidentally basically kills whatever little viability it has. This is made even easier due to the incentive of getting them secondary charged moves and the poorly designed TM interface, so accidentally click one wrong button and your legacy Pokémon will suffer from a Fate Worse than Death.
- Furthermore in the legendary raid days in 2018, Zapdos can learn Thundershock which is strictly better than its default Charge Beam. This basically means all old Zapdos are as good as obsolete. Just imagine if they give Groudon Precipice Blades as an exclusive and you have a team of 6 Groudon, you spent several thousand candy and several hundred thousands of stardust to max them, and in 3 hours, they are all obsolete. Do you feel the Despair Event Horizon now?
Speaking of the Pokemon GO page, this example bothers me a lot:
- With the Research Quest update, this loading screen◊ has a female trainer getting targeted by an Arbok in the background.
- With the Research Quest update, this loading screen
The female trainer does not look like she's in any kind of danger at all. And the example potholes to Oh, Crap! to make it seem scarier.
Also, how is it any scarier than the (not nightmare fuel) usual Gyarados screen?
don't ask me about my niche
Reading these examples make me want to groan in disappointment. Ach...
Also, I wonder if this example from Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny would be clean up. Personally, I don't think I found the Destroy Gundam to be scary at all. In fact, it is more into "evil is cool" territory, still intidimating, but maybe not enough for NF.
Sonic The Hedgehog 2019 is another awful NF page for an unreleased movie. Lists things like Fridge Horror, stuff that is "kind of unsettling" as opposed to "very unsettling" and the opening paragraph sounds like complaining to me
—signature not found—
Kill it with fire
Showtime!
Remove that one, it sounds like Evil Is Cool shoehorned into Nightmare Fuel, sort of like the removed entry about Darth Vader in Rogue One
Sonic The Hedgehog 2019 is mostly complaining about Sonic's design along with stuff that wasn't mean to be scary, and minor 'this is unsettling' stuff instead of trying to be scary.
The Protomen enhanced my life.
Short-Term Projects herald
![[tup]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Thumbs_up_emoticon_3268.png "[thumb up]"){kind=small}
Cut List NightmareFuel.Sonic The Hedgehog 2019.
NightmareFuel.The Star Wars Holiday Special is pretty terrible through-and-through. In particular, these examples are both complaining and misuse:
- Some poor bastards at BioWare probably had to sit through this multiple times when making Kashyyyk for Knights of the Old Republic and again when putting Life Day robes into Star Wars: The Old Republic. We can only hope they had a mute button.
- Chris Avellone of Obsidian Entertainment most definitely sat through this (along with the the rest on the Expanded Universe) when doing research for development of Knights of the Old Republic II. He truly is a brave soul, though one wonders if it played a part in his decision to make a deconstruction of the universe.
- Itโs not just the games, either. Every time the planet Kashyyyk appears in any form of Star Wars media, somebody has to sit through the Holiday Special just to make sure they get all the details right.
Keet cleanup