Nightmare Fuel cleanup and maintenance

I could see that someone could think it's scary, which is enough for me to put it in a doubt for removing. That means keep it. It's probably an example I'd want to remove if we had stricter standards, but we don't, and I'm not going to argue that we should.

I've got some queries about some examples on the RWBY Nightmare Fuel page here.

The examples I'm listing are queries that fall into a couple of categories:

• Are they Fridge?
• Focus on in-universe behaviour, actions and/or reactions. Could they be another trope?
• I'm not sure what point they're trying to convey (Are they zero context)?

I'm having a bit of trouble because most of the examples I'm listing (and many more that I haven't put in this post) could be valid, it's just they describe the scenes but don't explain what impact they're having on the audience to clarify why they're on the page... they seem to expect anyone reading the entry to automatically have the correct reaction for a Nightmare Fuel example.

It could be that I just need to dump them on the Discussion Page and ask people to rewrite them to explain what the audience impact actually is.

Possible Fridge:

^note  Burning the Candle

• Yang tells Blake an Adult Fear story about her childhood: two little children lost in the dark and cold, utterly defenseless against a pack of waiting monsters. If Qrow hadn't shown up when he did, Taiyang would have lost both of his daughters shortly after losing his second wife. Yang faces away from Blake, speaking in a calm monotone, but when Blake continues resisting the moral of her tale, Yang suddenly swings around to reveal that her eyes have turned completely red.

Mountain Glenn

• The backstory of Mountain Glenn is horrifying because it's so poorly explained. Oobleck claims that it was overrun by the Grimm due to a lack of natural barriers. The inhabitants were forced to retreat to the underground railway tunnels but the situation was considered a threat to the rest of Vale's safety. As a result, the city was sealed off and turned into the world's largest tomb. What Oobleck doesn't say is whether or not the citizens were buried while still alive.

The Next Step

• Salem is hunting down the Maidens one by one, and the person assigned to do it is a man who can barely control outbursts of unhinged laughter. He revels in his mission, showing utter glee at being ordered to find the Spring Maiden. However, when told to delay that and instead hunt down the sixteen year old girl who accidentally injured Cinder, Tyrian can barely contain his excitement. Although momentarily dampened by the instruction to bring Ruby back alive, he immediately cheers up by tormenting Cinder with the implication that he's going to enjoy torturing Ruby by taking the girl's left eye. Not only does he not have any fear for Ruby's silver eye power, Hazel makes it clear in a casual, dismissive tone that Salem's gang has dealt with Ruby's kind before, implying they're responsible for Summer's death... and Summer was a fully trained, experienced Huntress. Her daughter is neither experienced, nor is she properly trained.

Remembrance

• The village of Shion was attacked by bandits and Grimm, and was massacred and razed because, with Beacon Tower destroyed and communications down across the globe, it couldn't call for help. There are bodies strewn everywhere, and one of them dies on-screen while Ruby's group argue over how best to help him. How many other villages are suffering the exact same fate without anyone knowing? Qrow says it's common for villages outside the Kingdoms to disappear overnight - does this mean it's actually gotten worse? And then Ren and Nora recognise the mark left behind, implying what has happened to this village is connected to their back story which has only briefly mentioned they have no families and no home.

Of Runaways and Stowaways

• The Asian Dragon Grimm that attacks the ship Blake is on is huge; the ship's crew comment that it's not just the largest Grimm they've ever seen, it's the largest one anyone has ever seen. It's not just a creature of the deep waters, but it clearly has no trouble breathing above water either. It can also produce wings, giving it mastery of both the sea and air. Even though the ship is covered in cannons and guns, it can't make a dent in the beast, which is simultaneously too fast and too powerful to be damaged. Its Breath Weapon gives it a long-rage attack, and is the power of electricity, which Neptune has already proven with his own electricity-based power, is a horrible ability when the victims are surrounded by water. Not only did the ship need Blake and Sun to disable the wings for the ship to stand a chance, but if the ship hadn't hit the disabled dragon at ramming speed and used its main cannon to blow the head off, Blake and Sun would actually have sacrificed their lives to disable just the wings, meaning even two trainee Huntsmen working together didn't stand a chance against it alone.

Menagerie

• The episode ends with Tyrian, who's being his usual self, showing up in front of Qrow's waitress from the last episode, asking if she can help him find someone. Not only does this indicate that he's close on Ruby's tail, but it doesn't look good for the waitress's fate either. To make matters worse, we never find out what happened to her after this scene.

Tipping Point

• When Weiss snaps at a woman for insulting Vale's plight, Jacques publicly grabs Weiss with the intention of dragging her off, causing her to pull away and fall to the ground from the effort. For a moment, Weiss loses control of her summoning and sends a Boarbatusk after the woman she was arguing with. If Ironwood hadn't shot it, it likely would have killed or maimed the woman. Jacques doesn't seem to care about the woman, focussed instead of glaring quietly at Weiss. Given his public spat with her a moment before, the glare suggests he's willing to go much further in private.

A different trope perhaps?:

^note  No Brakes

• Part of Cinder's plan is confirmed to be driving a subterranean high-speed train, detaching carriages loaded with bombs, to blow open a route for the Grimm to invade the city from underground. Not only does Torchwick do it, but the cameras focuses on the horror and confusion of ordinary people going about their daily business as the Grimm start charging into the city.
• The White Fang Lieutenant is introduced while slowly dragging his chainsword over the floor. He has a deep, raspy voice and, after getting nearly beaten by Weiss, suddenly grabs her face, slams her on the ground, and throws her in the air. It cuts to the next scene right when he's seemingly about to cut her in half with his chainsaw.
  "Finally, I get to kill a Schnee..."

Lessons Learned

• When fighting Coco, Emerald vanishes, leaving Coco confused and unable to locate a target to shoot at. Yatsuhashi briefly appears to be approaching her but then she finds out he's still in the centre of the arena and just got defeated and begins shaking, unable to trust her own senses as Emerald sneaks up behind her to finish her off.

Fall

• The Fall Maiden, Amber, is in stasis with a hideous scar on her face. Ozpin's group explain to Pyrrha that this is unpredecented - Amber's had half her power stolen and they need transfer Amber's Aura and life to Pyrrha to prevent Cinder getting the rest of the power - not only will this kill Amber, but it might destroy Pyrrha's identity, too. Pyrrha has looked increasingly uncomfortable and scared by people she initially thought were just her teachers and now realises are complete strangers to her. She's terrified of them and the situation; with her ace-student persona gone, she's reduced to a terrified child. When she asks why the Maidens aren't common knowledge, she's told they used to be until power-mad people tried to kill them for their powers, confirming the Maiden powers do not protect them and knowledge of them would overturn society as they know it, including religion.

Of Runaways and Stowaways

• The treatment Salem is performing to heal Cinder consists of her doing something to Cinder's arm that makes a very unnatural sound. Cinder is fighting against something which causes her great strain while Salem states she must make 'it' dread her. Mercury and Emerald again look deeply uncomfortable with what is happening, and then a jellyfish-type Grimm floats in, covered in black flesh, spiles and red tentacles, and making some eerie clicking noises. Mercury and Emerald back themselves into the wall trying to avoid being touched by the thing. When it comes to a stop next to Salem and Cinder, Salem orders Cinder to force her broken voice to work enough to answer her questions truthfully. The creature next clicks the whole way through, collects Salem's orders and departs, leaving even Cinder looking deeply unsettled.

Tipping Point

• Ren halts RNJR, sensing something the rest of them clearly can't. As he focuses his attention, the camera cuts to Tyrian, covering a huge amount of distance at high speed, giggling as he goes. Although RNJR are completely prepared for Tyrian's attack, his first attack sends them all flying, showing how out-of-their-depth the kids are against an experienced adult; the rest of the fight only proves it, confirming that the kids have no idea what trouble they're walking into and just how completely unprepared for it they are. Tyrian himself realises this fact very quickly, and is delighted that Ruby doesn't comprehend the situation she's in. He goes on to prove it by breaking her Aura in just five hits.

Punished

• Things hit rock bottom for Weiss; whose father places her under house arrest, strips her of her inheritance, and cuts her off from her future career as a Huntress. Then Whitley reveals he has taken an "if you can't beat them, join them" approach to dealing with his father, by becoming the same kind of person as Jacques. The way Whitley's eyes bug out as he warns Weiss not to go against their father's wishes shows that something is clearly wrong with the kid. It's hard to tell if the look in his eyes is one of malice, madness, or abject terror; maybe even all three.

Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back

• The last scene focuses on the mark that was left behind after both bandits and Grimm destroyed Shion, outside a village that Ruby has decided to head for. Ruby and Jaune carry the infirm Qrow to the long-destroyed village of Kuroyuri. The symbol lying on the dirt road leading to the village is implied to be recent. Ruby and Jaune are walking into danger with a dying huntsman to protect and down two warriors due to Ren and Nora seeking help in a different direction.

Taking Control

• Salem doesn't make a fuss when she finds out Tyrian failed to capture Ruby. Very softly, very coldly, she simply says she's disappointed with Tyrian and walks off; this makes Tyrian's subsequent breakdown electrifying; he collapses to the ground, sobbing helplessly, causing a nearby Beowulf to see its chance and attack him from behind. Tyrian explodes with raw emotion in response; his broken tail whips the Beowful clean across the room and before it can recover, Tyrian's on it, slashing the creature over and over again while it struggles helplessly beneath him. Tyrian keeps lashing out until he is both sobbing and laughing maniacally at the same time. As the Grimm dissolves away, Cinder - who enjoyed watching people dying during the destruction of Beacon - watches Tyrian's savage meltdown in open-mouthed horror.

No Safe Haven

• Whereas in previous episodes, Salem was dissatisfied with Cinder's progress in developing her abilities, a solution has now been found. Emerald creates illusions of Ruby, which Cinder has no problem getting into the right frame of mind to destroy. Witnessing Cinder's hate-filled face as she destroys the image of a defenceless, begging Ruby, brings a smile to Salem's face.

Are these very wordy Zero Context Examples?:

^note  Beginning of the End

• Mercury is revealed to be the son of an assassin when Cinder arrives at his home to recruit Mercury's father. The audience is treated to the sight of a badly injured Mercury teetering on bandaged legs in front of his father lying dead in a heap and his home burning to the ground while Cinder confirms she just witnessed Mercury and his father fighting to the death; she enjoyed the fight so much, she recruits Mercury on the spot.

PvP

• The episode ends with the Grimm attacking and the White Fang assaulting the inside of the city with their a mixture of Faunus and Grimm. Cinder turns Atlas' own weaponry against them and the people. Pyrrha is emotionally compromised and Torchwick has stolen an Atlas ship.

Heroes and Monsters

• Once it becomes clear Roman's winning, he switches from being an elaborate, tactical fighter, to just repeatedly hitting a curled-up Ruby with his cane while ranting at her to die like every other huntsman in history. When he tells her he'll survive by any means necessary, a giant Griffon swoops down and swallows him whole.
• Cinder slays Amber with an arrow to the heart, which causes Amber's power to flow straight to her, giving her the full power of the Fall Maiden. Jaune ignores Ozpin's warning to not attack Cinder, and gets effortlessly thrown back. Cinder easily deflects Pyrrha's polarity and Ozpin decides to hold the line alone against Cinder while the kids escape.

Remembrance

• Ruby having nightmares filled with Pyrrha's voice, showing that the guilt of failing to save her is still lingering.

Family

• The Branwen siblings were raised by a bandit tribe. Although Qrow has left the lifestyle, Raven is the tribe's new leader, and was responsible for the raid on Shion. Raven appears to take no responsibility for the Grimm that attacked the village in the aftermath of her tribe's assault and lives by the rule that people should only be given one chance to be strong, after which all bets are off. Even though it's well known that the negative emotions caused by being assaulted will attract the Grimm, Raven is practically victim-blaming to dismiss her role in the later Grimm assault and apparently have no care for the people she left behind to be slaughtered. This is the mother that Yang wishes to find... a woman who knows her own daughter has lost an arm but who has no intention of intervening because Yang's already used up her allotment of Raven's "one chance" rule, and who thinks she should receive a pat on the back for deigning to warn Qrow twice that Ozpin's plan, and Beacon itself, were doomed.

Punished

• Qrow getting cut by Tyrian's scorpion stinger implies envenomation. Although the wound looks like a long scratch, it's the most blood that's been shown in the show since Mercury's legs just after he murdered his father.
• Ruby immediately chops off Tyrian's stinger when he injures Qrow, but their reactions to the strike are out-of-place. After insulting Ruby, Tyrian starts to hunch over and cringe. His behaviour becomes furtive and paranoid and he begins muttering over and over that Salem will forgive him, in a tone that suggests he knows she won't. He's also clearly got balance issues now his tail has been damaged. Meanwhile, Ruby hasn't batted an eyelid over the injury she's caused, giving her a strange combination of casual brutality and innocent protectiveness.

  Tyrian: YOU BITCH!

A Much Needed Talk

• Qrow's entire description of Salem and the flawless nature of her plans. Nobody can stop her from making people blame one another, because knowing about her would only speed up her plan to have Grimm destroy everything in the panic and chaos.

  Qrow: She works from the shadows, using others for her dirty work. That way, when it comes time to place the blame, we can only point at each other.

Manga

• Chapter 3 of the RWBY manga reveals that the Armored Knight Weiss fought in the White Trailer was actually a Grimm that possessed it and was unleashed to beat Weiss into going to Atlas. Her father and his associates stooped so low to not only possess such a fearsome creature, but to turn it loose on one of the heiresses for having a dissenting opinion.
• In Chapter 10, we are introduced to a new Grimm what looks like a giant six-eyed skull with tentacles coming out of it. On it's own it isn't anything that bad. But then cue the next chapter where the same Grimm ambushes a group of King Taijitus and forcefully fuses them together to create a giant hydra-like Grimm. Yes, Grimm fusions now exists.

edited 9th Oct '17 1:27:01 PM by Wyldchyld

RWBY's Nightmare Fuel page is something I've argued should be burned to the ground, salted, and locked. There's been so much utter crap there, and so many arguments about it that I don't think it's worth keeping at all. That said, to comment on the individual examples:

• Burning the Candle: The tale itself could qualify. While it doesn't end in tragedy, the danger is real. Yang being angry, on the other hand, no.
• Mountain Glenn: Speculation. The example focuses on a theory of how it could be.
• The Next Step: The example is very wordy, and looks mostly like a character trope, but then turns it around with speculation of a situation. It's also contradictory. First it describes him as unhinged, and then it tries to argue his lack of fear implies some kind of strength. If it's an example, it needs to be rewritten. Otherwise deleted.
• Remembrance: Speculation. Everything points to what could've happened elsewhere.
• Of Runaways and Stowaways: Badly written example, but could maybe be salvaged. It just reads as a description of a strong foe, not NF.
• Menagerie: Speculation and nothing else.
• Tipping Point: This is about a potentially harmful accident, which means it's speculation at best. Even so, a dangerous situation isn't NF by itself. This is an action series, not a romcom.
• No Brakes:
  • Example seems legit enough. It's an invasion by monsters.
  • Very weak as an example. It's a potential Gory Discretion Shot, but that doesn't actually happen.
• Lessons Learned: It's an illusion of some kind. That's really all there is to it. It's also in a safe environment, as it's a tournament battle.
• Fall: At best a badly worded, and too wordy, example. It mostly describes an in-character fear, but not how it's NF.
• Of Runaways and Stowaways: Again, mostly in-character fear. Somewhat better worded than the previously, but also too wordy.
• Tipping Point: Strong opponent. This is an action series. Without strong opponents, it would be boring.
• Punished: No idea what this is trying to be.
• Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back: This is nothing. Doesn't describe anything of significance at all.
• Taking Control: Too long example, and I'm not sure how it fits. A deranged person being deranged.
• No Safe Haven: Cinder attacking a puppet. How horrifying. No.
• Beginning of the End: Someone badly injured post battle. No.
• Pv P: Several short mentions of stuff. Could probably be turned into a proper example.
• Heroes and Monsters:
  • Eh, maybe. It's really just him being swallowed hole, and the entire thing before it is pointless.
  • Cinder fights. No.
• Remembrance: Someone having nightmares and guilt. No.
• Family: Mother of the year. No.
• Punished:
  • Blood. That's it.
  • Cutting off the stinger, maybe, but the example is all over the place, and it's the wrong place.
• A Much Needed Talk: Very, very weak. Could maybe be something, but I'm not sure.
• Manga:
  • Father of the year. No.
  • Eh, sure.

For Nightmare Fuel.Other I was thinking there could be a category for Diseases and Crime Cases.

There are a bunch of horrifying diseases that exist in real life as well as some truly horrifying crime cases

In addition, I may clean up this section since there are some ZC Es and some examples I don't think are really scary. Here are a few examples:

For the section on computers

• Three words: "Cannot Load OS".
  • Or "Boot failure".
  • An old one: "Non-system disk or disk error." Though this one usually meant that you left a diskette in the PC and it just needs to be removed and the PC rebooted. Similar errors can happen today if e.g. a USB stick is left in and is higher up in the boot order than your main drive.
• The pre-2012 Blue Screen of Death. Particularly the unfortunate experience of seeing a BSOD that simply read, "Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer. System halted." No "Press any key to terminate the program, press CTRL+ ALT+ DEL to restart" stuff, just two lines telling you that your system has come to a complete stop.
  • The version of the BSOD used in versions of Windows based on Windows NT (this includes 2000, XP, Vista, 7, and all server versions prior to Windows Server 2012) is worse for two reasons: the fact that those versions' improved stability means it appears far less often than in Windows 9x/Me (whose BSOD could possibly just be merely annoying to people who have used those versions enough to see it often^note for the records, you can BSOD a Windows 95 machine by just trying to access the floppy drive without a disk in it!), generally only appearing during more severe errors, and the fact that it includes far more text, with said text containing information related to memory dumps and error messages that's bound to look bizarre to someone who doesn't know what to do with it.
  • The BSOD is quite scary, but Windows 98 and early Vista builds featured a Red Screen of Death. Yikes!
  • Don't forget the early Macintosh's equivalent, the Sad Mac. If your system disk was corrupted, or if you hit the interrupt switch, instead of a smiling Macintosh icon on a warm gray background, you'd get one that looked as if it was dead from a stroke on a stark black background with nothing else but some weird HEX code, and you'd hear the "Hawaiian Death Chimes". "Doo do da dooo! Da doooo doooo..." * shiver*
    • The first generation of Power PC-based Power Macintosh replaced the Death Chimes with Stock Sound Effects of a car's tires screeching and then crashing sound. It's also kind of loud. Anyone who would find it funny would stop laughing the moment they realized that $3,000 of hardware had a critical failure.
  • Kernel panics (like BSODs in Linux/BSD) can be scary enough. Just imagine all your system going down with lots of cryptic error messages.
  • Fortunately averted with the Blue Screen of Death in Windows Server 2012 Windows 8, and Windows 10. This version of the BSoD uses a less-harsh cerulean background, the text basically sounds like it's saying "we're sorry," and has a sad ":(" emoticon on top.^note  Though it sometimes makes a loud droning noise when this if the user has audio playing while their PC crashes. If you have headphones/earbuds on, it can make for a mini Jump Scare.

edited 10th Oct '17 5:32:17 PM by SithPanda16

Aren't Nightmare Fuel examples for Real Life explicitly disallowed? NightmareFuel.Real Life was cut.

edited 10th Oct '17 6:06:57 PM by TropesForever

If you look up you can see "I, personally, don't think it's really scary" doesn't always fly with this thread. There's the kernel (heh) of a decent couple examples in there. Those error screens are often unexpected, the older ones have a cold and intimidating look to them, and they possibly mean your expensive hardware is fried; the writeups probably need a little trimming, but I can see where they came from.

(I've never seen the Sad Mac, since I've always used Windows machines, but it does sound creepy. Especially if you're seeing it unexpectedly.)

NightmareFuel.Pokemon and its subpages seem to have plenty of questionable entries.

• In general, the pages have plenty of redundant entries due to the multiple sub-pages. Some Pokemon are listed on their game's page, on the Pokédex page, and/or on the Pokémon Adult Horrors page.
• Pokédex has some weak entries. The "General" section at the start is pretty awful, with none of them being remotely scary. The specific entries below are also questionably scary, with many of them going into Fridge Horror and Wild Mass Guessing territory. On top of this, many Pokedex entries are notoriously improbable (Magcargo, for example, is said to be hotter than the sun, which should logically cause it to destroy the world just by existing), so taking them at face value is a pretty stupid thing to do. There are way too many examples on that page to go over one by one, but a quick glance should show that most of it is not Nightmare Fuel material.
• Most of the Pokemon Moves sub-page consists mostly of Zero Context Examples which simply describe what the move does, without going into detail about WHY it should be scary. The series is about fighting, so of course there's going to be violence.
• Pokémon Adult Horrors is also full of Fridge Horror and Wild Mass Guessing.
• Pokémon Ghost Stories seems to have mostly good examples, although with a bit of Fridge Horror thrown in.
• Pokémon Music has a Zero Context Example problem, although that's to be expected when the page is about audio.
• Pokémon Glitches is about non-canon content.
• The "Other horrors" folder on the page has plenty of non-canon examples, Zero Context Examples, and reading too much into things.

Why do we even have a subpage for individual moves?

I'd say at the very least, delete the general examples and the speculative examples (Fridge Horror, WMG, etc.). I'd say the Glitches subpage can be kept because while glitch Pokemon obviously aren't canon, they are still within the games themselves and some of them and the noises they play can actually be pretty creepy.

I believe that the moves page should be cut, since it doesn't really contain enough truly frightening content. The few good entries could easily be moved to another page.

Looking at the examples for The Last Jedi nightmare fuel, I found some examples that might not work.

• The dominant color of the film's promotional campaign is definitely red, and it's pretty unsettling. On the last poster alone, we see trails of blood that extend vertically to become like geysers of blood, Kylo Ren's lightsaber, the red armor-clad Praetorian Guards and the red dust trail the Resistance vehicles leave behind them on Crait.

• The new trailer has a good amount of nightmare inducing material. But what appears to be Snoke torturing Rey really takes the cake.

• Also, considering the trailer, he could be saying this to Rey. And even with the little bit of Force training she'd had, we see her manage to crack apart part of Ahch-to. If those were her abilities as a beginning Force user, imagine what she'd be capable of once she fully hones her abilities.

edited 13th Oct '17 6:17:40 PM by SithPanda16

The color red is not Nightmare Fuel in and of itself. I don't think anyone is going to lose sleep or otherwise be freaked out just because a poster has red on it.

The other entries seem to be speculation, which is not allowed.

Also, one entry describes a trailer as "new", which violates Examples Are Not Recent.

edited 13th Oct '17 8:38:48 PM by Zuxtron

I'm voting a big on a NF page for The Last Jedi in general until the movie is actually released.

The trailer does have a couple of unsettling moments. The major problem with some of the NF pages for films that are not out yet is that they will be filled with speculation.

Cut the Nightmare Fuel page on The Last Jedi for now. There's probably parts of that movie that will be horrifying, but right now it's speculation.

That poster is creepy due to the use of red being like blood, but not literally going to give me Nightmares.

I've been working on the Pokémon subpages, removing things that objectively don't belong on that page (Fridge Horror, Wild Mass Guessing, Zero Context Examples). I did the main page, Pokémon Adult Horrors, and Pokémon Ghost Stories so far, but the other pages might not be possible for me to clean up by myself.

As said before, Pokemon Moves probably shouldn't exist at all(seriously, look at it!), and Pokémon Music has a huge Zero Context Example problem. Pokédex has a lot of dubiously-scary examples in there as well, which might need more consensus to remove.

Pokémon Glitches might need a bit of cleaning up too: many of these glitches have such specific activation conditions that it's pretty much impossible to encounter them unless you specifically look up a guide and intentionally do the trick. This means that you'll probably only ever see them when you want to, which greatly reduces the scare factor (an important aspect of fear is helplessness to prevent a bad thing from happening, which is lost when you WANT it to happen and intentionally trigger it).

@Another Duck: thanks for the response. I'll put the ones that might be rewritable on the Discussion Page and get rid of the rest.

Since Volume 5 has just kicked off, the page will become very active again.

The Thomas the Tank Engine page has a lot of examples that I think are mis-use. Going through the "show" folder:

"The episode "Percy Runs Away", when Percy forgets to tell the signalman to let him switch tracks and thus suddenly realizes that Gordon is hurtling straight towards him. The looks of absolute horror on both the trains faces will make you wince."

Word Cruft and probable exaggeration.

"There's a brief scene in "Old Iron" where the camera is directly in front of the tracks where James rolls in unnervingly close with said angry expression glaring directly at the viewer. It also doesn't help that his coat is red, which is usually the color to signify anger."

Umm, so an angry face and red is scary now? Seems like a cut.

"Diesel's growling in "Pop Goes the Diesel". And then in "Dirty Work", he managed to turn everyone (except the Fat Controller) against Duck with a few simple rumours. Even now, in the new series, he still turns up despite other characters falling by the wayside. He's just that good."

This is... not Nightmare Fuel.

"While the following episode "The Deputation" focuses on making sure Donald and Douglas aren't sent away to be scrapped, the the show never really established why they would be scrapped—unlike Oliver, for instance, they were in good condition and proved to be immensely useful once they got to Sodor. It seemed to hint that any engine could, and would, be scrapped if it was convenient for the humans, regardless of how 'useful' they actually were."

Fridge Horror.

"In Thomas, Percy & The Dragon, Thomas is hired to take a dragon decoration to another town on Sodor for a festival. Percy is downright scared of it and from a kid's point of view, the dragon was scary, and the music that played whenever it appeared didn't help."

Doesn't sound like it scared the troper.

"James getting spun on a windy turntable in the penultimate scene of "Tenders & Turntables". The music takes on an off-putting twist, getting faster and high-pitched before slowing down to a stop along with the turntable. James's frowning face and spinning eyes are unsettling, but the worst part as when he backs into the shed, embarrassed and without uttering a word— we cut to a gloomy-looking James staring right into the camera, accompanied by chilling music. Sweet dreams."

I can't really see how this◊ could be scary.

The example with Smudger seems legit, but the second bullet point is Fridge Horror.

"In "A Better View for Gordon", Gordon, unable to stop himself, smashes through the back wall of Sodor's main station and ends up hanging halfway out the hole. His wheels are hanging below him, having come off in the impact. This is the equivalent of having your legs ripped off, only attached by a few bits of flesh."

Fridge Horror.

"The episode "Slow Stephen" has The Sodor Suspension Bridge collapsing yet again. Only this time, it nearly killed GORDON AND ALL HIS PASSENGERS ON THE EXPRESS. Thank God that Stephen could stop him before he could cross. Not to mention the actual collapse is pretty unsettling, complete with a Scare Chord."

Exaggeration, and it didn't actually happen.

"In Snow Engine, Oliver crashes into a snowman. Some of the snow gets into his eye sockets, making it look like he has no eyes"

this◊ is probably not frightening to anyone.

edited 20th Oct '17 9:08:36 AM by WhatArtThee

I agree with all of those. Unless something like a train crash could lead to people actually dying within that setting, it's projecting your own nightmares onto it. Things like equating a wheel coming loose with a limb ripped off is just making stuff up. Unless they're permanently crippled with no possibility of repairs.

I second Another Duck.

As an aside:

I.... actually remember this scene back in the days when I was a little kid watching this show. Was that the scene where Gordon was teasing James for being stuck on the windy turnstile? I'm sure it was played for laughs, anyway.

The Snow Engine scene is definitely not Nightmare Fuel, but it might qualify as Getting Crap Past the Radar. When I clicked the link, my first and immediate impression was that Oliver''s getting boned from behind. Contributing to this impression are Oliver's expression and the position of the snowman's arm.

Getting Crap Past the Radar needs to be clearly intentional. One out-of-context frame isn't enough to determine whether it was intentionally made to look that way. I haven't watched Thomas since I was a kid, but from what I remember of it, it doesn't seem like the kind of show where the writers would try to sneak in a sex joke. It's more likely to be an Accidental Innuendo.

Yeah, that was my take as well, and further discussion of that point is off-topic to this thread. The important thing here is that it ain't Nightmare Fuel, for any of several reasons.

So, Apparently FTL: Faster Than Light has page at NightmareFuel.FTL Faster Than Light. While I don't really think anything qualifies, there are a bunch I think are plain misuse. To clarify: I think all of the ones I list should be deleted. I've not listed a bunch that rely on sound effects and music. I'm not going to judge those. Comments in [brackets].

• The Mantis's sprite resembles that of a spider. Imagine you're just merrily jumping from sector to sector when all of a sudden, the alarms go off and there are six of these insectoid creatures after your blood. [Actually, as the name implies, it's a giant, sentient praying mantis. There's nothing visual and all persona phobia here. The sprites are about 16x16 px large.]
• In an event you can find in Zoltan sectors, one of your crew members undergoes rapid reverse aging until they disappear. [This is just assuming rapid reverse aging is NF, without mentioning why. ZCE.]
• Nebula sectors can be frightening due to the empty-sounding explore music. With every jump, there comes the risk of enemy ships, which doesn't sound too bad, or a Boarding Party that you may have trouble locating due to your sensors being unusuable. If you aren't paying attention to the narration, the sudden "INTRUDERS DETECTED" warning can come off as a Jump Scare. The worst part about boarding parties is that unlike ships, which are marked on the map if you have updated map data or Long-Range Scanners, there's no way of telling if your next jump will dump you into boarder territory. [Jump scares are not NF, especially if it requires you to not pay attention. Being attacked is also not NF in a combat game.]
  • Ion Storms can come as a Jump Scare by playing the loud thunder noises as soon as you jump into one. [Again, just a jump scare.]
  • Slug ships in Slug-controlled nebulas can shut off your oxygen. We hope you like asphixation! [Saying they can shut off your oxygen is like saying they can shoot you, just like any other enemy. If that scares you, why are you playing a game where you kill stuff?]
• The event of finding weird horse like creatures. Don't try to sell them to slavery. [ZCE. Doesn't actually say what's scary. Now, I can imagine why, since I know what the event is about, but I'm not about to write an example myself. But they're still nothing but a little violent, so they don't fall outside what you do all the time anyway.]
• When you fight an enemy ship, the game will reward you with extra loot if you manage to wipe out its crew without destroying it. This normally requires a boarding action and brutal fight to the finish, but there's other options: [Not actually an example, but just a wordy, exaggerated bullet.]
  • Disable or destroy their life support systems and wait as all the oxygen leaks out of the air and they suffocate to death. This takes an especially horrific aspect if you find yourself blasting the oxygen and/or medibay compartments every time your desperate opponents manage -- briefly -- to get them operational again. [Killing enemies in a combat game is not NF. And as far as deaths go, it's painless.]
  • Use fire weapons to set fire to their entire ship. [Burn enemies. As opposed from exploding them? Fires are not by themselves NF.]
    • Combine the two to give the enemy the choice between burning to death or suffocation! [And more! That's all the "example" adds.]
  • Lanius can teleport into the enemy O2 bay and start draining oxygen immediately as well as blowing it up. Without an immediate overwhelming attack, this can result in the Lanius standing in an oxygen-deprived O2 room laughing as the enemy crew run around knowing their oxygen will slowly move from room to room and their only chance will be to charge into an airless room to fight a metal man who doesn't need oxygen to survive. [Again, just lack of oxygen, this time sadistically done by the player. I don't think that player is particularly afraid of it.]
    • Combine that with a Hacking Drone targetting the same O2 bay. Cackle maniacally about the ensuing result. [Now this is just gloating. How's that NF?]
  • The Anti-bio beam, a weapon that deals damage only to crew, works too. Imagine your comrades at arms suddenly dropping dead around you mid-battle, like puppets with their strings cut. [Imagine if you could just imagine whatever you wanted and pretend it's an example that occurs in the game? Again, it's just killing people in a game where you shoot down space ships.]
• Advanced Edition introduces the Lanius race. What do they do? They not only can survive without oxygen, but they absorb it from whatever rooms they're in. Their presence on an enemy ship means bye-bye to the victims' air supplies. [All races breathe air. The Lanius just consume more air than a non-upgraded life support system can supply. That's it.]
• Hacking the medbay doesn't just deactivate it, it hurts anyone who's unlucky enough to be in it at the time. Since hacking a room also seals the doors, anyone in there is probably going to die. Since the medbay works by pumping people full of healing nanomachines, they're going to die a death of a trillion cuts frantically trying to force a door open as the room that was supposed to heal them tears them apart. [Very dramatically written. Unfortunately, that's not reflected in the game. You turn on the hacking drone, and the enemies lose HP. That's it.]
• There was a "Ghost" race and ghosts ships planned, as mentioned on the main FTL page. The AI that takes over the Rebel Flagship if you kill off its crew is, by the game's coding, actually an invisible, invincible ghost. One way to interpret it is the ship becoming haunted if you kill off the crew. [The concepts of ghosts and haunting are by themselves not NF. Also, it's not actually in the game as much as dummied out content, or coding shortcuts.]
• For those fighting the Flagship's second phase for the first time, the distinct "WARNING — POWER SURGE DETECTED" klaxon gives you that dreadful feeling that something very, very bad is about to happen to your ship. [This is, at best, a jump scare. And it's the enemy warning before attacking.]
• Some of the "uneventful" beacons. There are quite a few beacons where you find abandoned mines and no life signs are detected, with no clues given as to why they're completely empty. And then there's the event where "a rudimentary automated planetary defense system is looping its message into space: "Warning! Quarantine Level 5 in effect under FHA Act 22, article 11.2. Warning! Quarantine Level 5..." - Just what is going on there? [Nothing Is Scarier means there's nothing in the actual game, and all in the player's mind. That's not an example.]
• The Crystal race have a power called lockdown, which surrounds a room in crystals, preventing anyone getting in our out. There is an achievement for doing this to four enemies at once. Its called 'No escape'. [This is probably the silliest one on the list, and that's saying a lot. They can lock a room.]
• Using the mind control system on enemies, turning them against their crewmates. Imagine some one you've know for years suddenly trying to kill you. It gets worse with upgrades as those controlled have increased health and damage. [This is just mind control and player imagination. Not NF]
  • Combining this with the teleporter allows you to abduct an enemy crew member every 20 seconds. Imagine being taken over, fighting your friends then regaining control, only to find yourself on any enemy ship surrounded by hostile forces. [Just a useless addition to the previous.]

I feel like any example that starts with "Imagine..." counts as Fridge Horror and can be cut.

• Mantises: I'm not familiar with FTL, so are these guys what the example is talking about? Because they're not really detailed enough to be scary. I couldn't even tell which way the sprites were facing for a minute.
• Reverse aging: Could count, but needs to be more detailed.
• Nebula sectors: Could also count but needs to be cleaned up.
• Horse things: Again, I'm not familiar with the game, so I have no idea what's scary here. (Also, if you sell creatures into slavery, I kinda feel like you deserve to be attacked or whatever happens if you do.)
• Killing methods: It depends on how detailed the deaths are, I think. Also, more "Imagine..."
• Lanius: Not really scary, just describes a game mechanic.
• Hacking: Fridge Horror, "Imagine..."
• Ghosts: Possibly scary, but the end sounds more like WMG than anything else.
• Flagship: Sounds more like a Jump Scare than anything else. It might count?
• Uneventful beacons: I could see how this one could be scary, but I don't know how it's portrayed in-game.
• Crystal race: Not scary, just a game mechanic.
• Mind control: "Imagine..."

edited 21st Oct '17 4:42:49 PM by NervousShark