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Nightmare Fuel cleanup and maintenance

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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.

    Nightmare Fuel rules 
  • 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.
  • 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

Blueforest73 Since: Jan, 2019
#1326: Jun 22nd 2019 at 10:38:18 AM

Hi, I have become the main (and one of the only) editors for seven knights mobile game page and I am curious if these correctly qualify for Nightmare Fuel, If they don't I can remove or edit some out?

Thank you.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/NightmareFuel/SevenKnights

Edited by Blueforest73 on Jun 22nd 2019 at 10:45:55 AM

Currently revamping and updating Seven Knights Tv Tropes.
lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#1327: Jun 22nd 2019 at 2:38:31 PM

NightmareFuel.Amulet has a lot of natter and ZCE issues.

The Protomen enhanced my life.
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#1328: Jun 22nd 2019 at 4:31:09 PM

Thanks Talesofunder. I might keep the freeze frame because some people can be perceptive of even single frames, and though I'm fairly jaded I can see how someone would find it grotesque.

WhiteCheddaPikachu A Kitsune Balancing Act from a place upstate where the cats bump into gates Since: Nov, 2018 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
A Kitsune Balancing Act
#1329: Jun 22nd 2019 at 5:16:35 PM

@ Blueforest73: I don't know the mobile game so I can't reall help much, but the way the examples are written seem fine. Though the fourth one is a bit long.

Sturgeon's Law is too YMMV for page examples, so WHY is it not a YMMV trope!?
Zuxtron Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel from Node 03 (On A Trope Odyssey)
#1330: Jun 22nd 2019 at 5:35:53 PM

[up][up][up][up] Some of these examples are pretty bland. It reads like you're just listing a bunch of unpleasant things that happen without really trying to make it sound scary.

The example about Dellons is OK, as it does describe the character being murdered and makes it sound rather gruesome.

Blueforest73 Since: Jan, 2019
#1331: Jun 22nd 2019 at 9:13:00 PM

Thank you both for the feedback! I'm still not too experienced with TV Tropes but I wanted to update this page for Seven Knights as I did for another game, King's raid. I will try making it more descriptive and specific and see how that comes out.

Currently revamping and updating Seven Knights Tv Tropes.
KingofNightmares Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#1332: Jun 24th 2019 at 9:09:07 AM

Two Image Pickin threads were started on these pages, but it was thought that the pages should be looked at here

Chris Stuckmann

The Nostalgia Critic

"It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times?"
lalalei2001 Since: Oct, 2009
#1333: Jun 24th 2019 at 11:13:41 AM

Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) seems overlong for something only 17 issues in.

The Protomen enhanced my life.
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#1334: Jun 24th 2019 at 2:08:49 PM

I'll start on the Chris Stuckmann cleanup; let's see what we're dealing with here. Keep in mind, I don't watch his reviews:

Not horrible. Remove the natter, and this example could be fine. ZCE
  • The ending of part 2 of Chris' scary movie special, an excellently creepy "skit" where Sam (Chris' fiance) suddenly stops breathing and moving. Chris rushes to call 911, but after pouring out what he has to say, all he hears is "Seven daaaaayyss...", to which he turns around and finds Samara standing in the doorway. Chris, very much terrified, drops his phone, which is shown to have the ring glowing on it. Samara then lunges at the camera and it cuts to static.
Again, this one might not be too bad.
  • The thumbnail for his Phoenix Forgotten review.
ZCE Could probably be expanded, but I can see how that would be scary. Yelling is scary now?
  • As one commenter put it: "If I had to sit in front of that steaming vomit pile of a movie for two hours, I'd want to scream too."
Also, natter. Unsettling, but is it scary?

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#1335: Jun 24th 2019 at 2:10:48 PM

Also, would y'all mind stopping by the Image Pickin' thread for the Jon Tron page? The bad image hasn't even been pulled yet due to lack of posts.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#1336: Jun 24th 2019 at 4:35:49 PM

Looking through Dexter's Laboratory. Starts off OK enough and most of them do try to explain themselves without too much Nightmare Fetish Fuel purple prose, but...

    Dexter's Laboratory 
  • Dexter's Laboratory has this in some episodes such as Dexter turning into a clown in the episode "The Laughing." (2nd segment) Possibly legit but ZCE.
  • In The episode "Babysitter Blues" there's a scene when Dexter makes himself into a teenager and then there's a horrifying closeup of his face filled with acne, it is really unsettling. gross More Nausea Fuel, but keep.
  • The monster that comes out of the interdimensional doorway in "Deedeemensional". It's a giant pink blob... thing with a VERY fang-lined mouth and a disturbing roar. And for its first on-screen action, it sprinkles salt on Dexter, devours him, and you can actually see little amoeba things in its stomach begin to digest him.
    • As for the episode itself, it ends on the horrific implication that Dexter's plan to send Dee Dee into the past to prevent him from opening the portal is doomed to fail.
      • To explain: after Dee Dee is sent back in time, she tries deliver the message to Dexter, who aggressively rebukes her, causing Dee Dee to run off in tears to be comforted... by herself. Then Dexter, realizing that Dee Dee wasn't lying about her time traveling, he tries to get the message from her, only for both Dee Dees to jerk him around and withhold the message until Dexter, fed up, decides to try and trick them into entering the portal. Guess what happens next. And then, when Dexter gives them the new message, only then does Past!Dee Dee give him her message, causing Dexter to realize that he is, quite in fact, "doomed". And then, while repeating the "This had better be important, woman." bit, the episode ends on the ominous shot of Dexter's notes and blueprint of the portal with an untested label. Very delicate calculations indeed.Keep the original and delete the bullets.
  • One episode, "Filet of Soul", started off with Dexter and Dee Dee's pet fish dying and Dee Dee refusing to let it get flushed down the toilet. Later, the ghost of said fish comes back to haunt them because he was denied entry to "the sewer beyond". The ending parodied the classic ending from the "Thriller" music video.
    • Before that, the whole episode was one big Shout-Out to Poltergeist.
    • And if that's not enough, there's the part where a giant tentacle comes out of the toilet and grabs Dee-Dee.
    • The way that mom says "Flush Him" in that episode is freakishly creepy. There's some spooky aspects to the episode but none of the entries described capture it, as Thriller and Poltergeist are not particularly scary. "Flush him" is more funny than creepy.
  • The episode "Jeepers Creepers, Where is Peepers?" featured Dexter and Dee Dee's magical friend Koosie working together to save Peepers (another magical being) from an anime villain, in one scene we see a rather disturbing graphic look at Peepers as he is having his energy sucked off. HE'S INSIDE OUT. Also, he then (somehow) goes from a Blob Monster to a flesh-colored dragon and fortunately stomps on the villain, but how do we know that's not an effect from the machine he was trapped in?
    • And this line from Peepers in a voice that is equally disturbing as the scene mentioned above: "Help me, Koosie, help me." *shudder* Keep.
  • There was also the episode "Dream Machine" (3rd segment). The title alone pretty much sets you up for an entire episode based around Nightmare Fuel. While Dexter creates a machine that would consistantly give him sweet dreams, the worst part comes right at the ending in which Dexter suddenly comes to a realization that he's living in a nightmare because Dee Dee is smarter than him. At this point his clothes come off and he ends up stark naked in the middle of a laughing crowd. (Said crowd turns into a very creepy Eldritch Abomination a moment later.) Afterwards, he gets taunted by a bunch of laughing Dee Dees and the episode ends with him falling endlessly into an eternal abyss and unable to wake up, screaming for Dee Dee to wake him up while she is shown to have fell asleep as well.
    • Even before turning into a nightmare, Dexter's "sweet dream" has some disturbing imagery. We see a montage of Dexter absorbing all the knowledge in the world; in one scene his head becomes a mouth that eats equations, and in another he sucks Einstein's brain out with a straw. Keep.
  • What about the episode with all the clones in it? At the end due to the overuse of the cloning machine, There is a creepy fusion of Dexter, Dee-Dee, and her two friends, that talks in a weird way. Keep? I don't remember enough to comment.
  • "Chicken Scratch". The animation is more fluid (and downright ugly). It really gets scary when Dexter crazily scratches himself, including on metal spikes at one point, and even destroys one of his robots to use its arm and head to scratch himself. It doesn't help that his maniacal laughter was lifted straight from "The Laughing". Keep.
  • "Got Your Goat." Dexter and Dee Dee travel to South America in search of the Chupacabra, or "Charlie," an invention of Dexter's that escaped the lab. During the journey, they enter a cave in search of the little critter, when they come across a backpack. Little odd, until you notice that it's been ripped open. Shortly thereafter, they find a number of personal belongings, one of which is an alarm clock of all things, and a pair of binoculars. Covered in fresh, still-dripping blood. And is immediately followed up with a human skull. It's Played for Laughs, but really think about this for a moment. At no point is it implied something else did this, and the only other thing we know of to be in this cave is Charlie. Dexter's creation KILLED someone. And Dexter plays this off as "Hey, no creation is perfect," when addressing the subject of why Charlie is attacking goats.The blood part might be keepworthy but on the whole it's Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • There is an extremely disturbing episode, "Monstory", where Dee Dee won't stop telling Dexter a story that he thinks is just going to be one of her knock-knock jokes, and in desperation, he reaches into his jacket to retrieve a vial that will leave her mute. Instead, he obtains a vial that has a warning on it that drinking it will turn you into a monster. He gives it to Dee Dee who turns into a horrific beast, and the episode essentially consists of the two of them going back and forth drinking the vial and increasing in size, but while Dee Dee gets more disturbing by the second, Dexter's mutations are weak to say the least, until he drinks the contents of a nuclear plant and grows into an enormous Godzilla like creature. The episode concludes with Dee-Dee becoming an ABSOLUTELY TERRIFYING spider creature that pins Dexter to the ground and speaks with a high pitched squealing, echoing voice: "Now you'll listen! So the boy told the girl in the park on the pony... 'Knock knock!'"
    • Not to mention that they get into an honest-to-goodness kaiju battle, and while it's more funny than scary (Dexter and Dee Dee even name the attacks they throw at each other), there's quite a bit of collateral damage to the city they're in. There are a few close up shots of their fight though, during which we actually see them bleed and Dee Dee bites Dexter. One of the worst parts though is at the end of the fight, Dee Dee has beaten Dexter and he slowly falls backwards crushing buildings as he falls and people run for their lives, and Dee Dee just watches him fall with a Psychotic Smirk. Keep.
  • The TRON parody episode, with the evil computer program's creepy, gravelly voice, how quickly it takes over the lab, and how Dee Dee comes VERY close to not defeating him. Delete.
  • The episode "Star Check"—basically a Star Trek parody. Dexter and his friends want to go to a Trekkie convention, but end up in a Darbie (Barbie parody) collectors' convention instead. Said doll collectors look and act very much like Klingons. Especially when they accidentally open the box of a collector's item, which appears to be a capital sin around here. The expression on the other customers' faces is simply hair-raising.
    • The leader of the Darbie collectors, a hideous old crone whose prized possession is an original Darbie from the 50s still in its packaging.
    • Speaking of Darbie, there was "Dollhouse Drama" where Dexter shrank himself. Computer warned him staying small would mess with his mind. He stays small too long and by the time he comes back to regular size he has fallen in love with a Darbie doll that he thinks he hurt. His mother and Dee Dee find him trying to nurse it back to health.
      Dexter: "It's okay, my sweet. Go back to sleep. You need your rest..." Delete the first two. The last one is creepy.
  • The first season episode "Dee Dee's Room." How does it begin? With a zombiefied looking Dexter with pulsating veins over his face. It ends that way too.
    • The episode itself is surreal and freaky.
    "The horror. THE HORROR." Not that creepy. Delete.
  • The "Gork" monster from "Misplaced In Space". It tries to DEVOUR Dexter!
  • The Hal expy's Nothing Is Scarier takeover of the lab in "Ultrajerk 2000". The worst part is that the robot was designed to be Dexter's perfect replica (appearance notwithstanding).
  • "Sore Eyes". In an attempt to make his vision clearer, Dexter's gets laser eye surgery that turns out to have Gone Horribly Right. Because of his new vision, his family's tiny flaws and imperfections are magnified a thousandfold, causing them to appear as ugly, disgusting mutants. It didn't help that Bill Wray worked on this. The worst part is that he now sees all the tiny microbes and bugs that infest our food.
    • Also, Dexter tries to keep his glasses put by stapling them. Cue Scream Discretion Shot
    • The crazy and unsettling music in the background being played while Dee Dee and the rest of the family are making those disturbing noises doesn't help either.
      • The title cart is extremely scary also[1]" Keep.
  • Mandark summoning Jojo at the science fair.
  • Dexter going insane and destroying his lab in "Way of the Dee Dee". Not helped by the episode's Tear Jerker ending. Delete.
  • Dexter's Mom's mental breakdown in "Psylightly Psycho" can turn anyone into a germaphobe.
    • The dust bunnies. DEAR GOD. THE DUST BUNNIES. Keep? It's a Psycho parody.
  • Not to mention the Big Bad of "Go Dexter Family! Go!" has an extra set of teeth. *shudder* Weak, but keep.
  • In the crossover episode with Blue Falcon and Dynomutt, in the flashback, as Dynomutt confidently tells Blue Falcon where the stolen diamond's location was at, behind him, Buzzord stabs him through with his claws. Watching Dynomutt, the goofy sidekick of Blue Falcon, being stabbed by a ruthless villain such as Buzzord and seeing him cringing in pain. God, poor Dynomutt! Delete.
  • What happens when Dexter's parents don't have their morning coffee.
    • You could see that their dad was about to do something unspeakable to his own children, and the only reason they were saved was through a joke whose meaning (as a pop culture reference) is obscure to younger viewers. And even then, when everything is okay, the last line of the episode, "BUT WHAT IF WE DIDN'T.", takes it right back to terrifying.
    • Earlier in the episode we get a Gross-Up Close-Up of Mom and Dad's faces. It's... not pretty. Delete all but the last.
  • Dexter's parents and Dee Dee getting possessed in "Gooey Aliens That Control Your Mind".
  • "Ewww, That's Growth" has Dexter trying to accelerate his body growth so he can be big enough to ride a rollercoaster. His experiment succeeds, but as soon as they arrive at the rollercoaster, they must go down an impossibly long queue, and by the end, Dexter's gotten much bigger than most of the other people waiting for the rollercoaster. Once an elongated Dexter finally gets on the rollercoaster and enjoys the ride, his head crashes into the upper part of a tunnel. The scene abruptly cuts to a THE END card. And an uncomfortable feeling will most likely come over you. Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • Koosie's laugh in the "The Koose is on the Loose" can be pretty creepy, especially at the end when all it shows is the end card with no music and all you can hear is his laugh. Delete.
  • In the Missing Episode, "Rude Removal", when Mom gets mad.
    • The episode's title card. While humorous, it's something you never thought you see the characters do in official artwork, especially in Dee Dee's case.
    • Anytime Dexter's mom gets angry, she's pretty terrifying, especially in the episode "Dee Dee Locks And The Ness". It's no wonder why Dexter, Dee Dee, and even their dad never say no to her favors. Here's an example from one episode:
    Mom: Dex! It's time for your bath!
    Dexter: But I'll miss my show...
    Mom: DON'T ARGUE WITH ME, YOUNG MAN! JUST DO IT! (proceeds to walk off as if nothing had happened) Limited to people with abusive parents, but keep.
  • Dexter's guilt induced daydreams in "Space Case" including a giant fork like object heading directly towards Dee Dee's head, Dee Dee's arm being sliced in place of a sausage and Dee Dee's decapitated head on Dexter's plate! Keep.
  • Puppet Pal Mitch, especially in the live-action skits. *shudder* Delete.
  • "Dexter's Assistant", in which Dexter makes Dee Dee smarter. He does so by removing her brain, complete with opening up her head while she's still awake, taking out her tiny brain, and placing a larger, smarter one in its place!
    • While the brain transplant is ludicrous (it would essentially be a body transplant for the person the big brain belonged to), brain surgery is actually performed without general anesthesia (although, local anesthesia is used). Only if the person is awake, thus capable to think, move and speak, brain surgeons can have an immediate feedback of what they are doing. Keep the first, delete the latter.
  • The demise of the Energy Thief. Dexter turns an entire array of solar panels to converge their rays upon the crystalline beast, causing it to turn bright red and boil from the inside out before exploding into Ludicrous Gibs that splatter over everything. Gets a bit worse if you think about it too hard, as the creature was only taking energy from the solar plants to feed itself and continue living. Keep.
  • Most of the episode "The Bus Boy", revolving around kids stories about what lurks in the dark back of the schoolbus. Pleasant stories such as a giant monster that eats little children and appears as a giant fanged mouth in the darkness, a giant spider with a human head, and a tear in reality that drags in any child that strays too close. Worse, its apparently TRUE to some extent, as a boy named Billy had apparently disappeared back there decades earlier, and when Dexter drops his pencil near the dark area, something grabs it and drags it into the darkness. Thankfully, it turns out the "monster" is Billy himself, now a grown man calling himself Bill who got trapped in a wad of bubble gum and has been living back there ever since, but is quite a nice, well adjusted guy despite of this. As for the whole "dragging stuff in the darkness" thing, he explains that he accidentally broke the bus light when his shoe fell off and hit it, fortunately causing his toenails to grow out of his sock and allowing him to rake in any food that gets dropped on the floor. At least we know how he's still alive. Keep as whether or not it works the episode is meant to be deliberately scary.
  • A mix of Nightmare Fuel and Tear Jerker is when Dexter, Mee Mee and Lee Lee find Dee Dee on a clearing of the forest in "Dee Dee's Tail" after she has convinced Dexter to turn her into a horse. What makes it creepy is the way they quickly decide to mere use her and in the end, how Dexter says they are there to *tame her once and for all* while she begs them to leave her be. It's nerve wrecking to see how they are treating a sister and best friend and how it didn't take long for the change in treatment to happen (they no longer even see her as Dee Dee, but as a wild horse that they want as theirs) and how their attitudes show that they believe that in order to tame her, they have to break her spirit. Considering the implications and how free spirited Dee Dee is, this makes this troper shiver every time. Delete.
  • The episode about Dad's obsession with Mom's muffins. Sanity Slippage Played for Comedy in a kid's cartoon, folks. Delete.
  • From "Aye Aye Eyes", there's the Creepy Eyed Girl's Thousand-Yard Stare. Uncanny Valley. Keep.
  • The ending of "Paper Route Bout", which involved Dee Dee competing in a newspaper-delivering contest with a group of delinquent ninja kids. At the end of the contest, both her and the competing ninja are tied at 0, with only one house left. Dee Dee lands her paper and wins the contest, while the ninja gets distracted by a traveling salesmen selling Chinese food and small animals.
    • The creepiness comes in after Dee Dee's victory. The ninja's dishonored teammates punish him by forcing him to whack himself with a newspaper. He gets on his knees and holds his paper in a way that's eerily similar to the act of Seppuku. He then hits himself in the head and fall on his face, ending the episode.
      • In other words, they just depicted a villain committing suicide. On screen. In a kid's show.
      • The complete lack of dialogue and the nervous sweating on the ninja's face as he prepares to hit himself only add to the horror. Delete.
  • This promo that has Dexter laying in a fetal position while a voice in his head keeps calling him stupid, ending with Dee-Dee and Mom knocking on his door with concern. What Were They Selling Again?
    • What's especially disturbing is that the announcer of the promo implies that Dexter's hearing the voice because he's gone off the deep end. Delete.
  • The episode "Let's Save the World You Jerk!" has Dexter and Mandark team up to stop the Earth from being destroyed by an asteroid (which is later broken up into a group of asteroids). Predictably they can't stop bickering with one another, with the episode ending with the two of them battling each other in their mechs, completely oblivious to the asteroids' proximity to the Earth until it's too late. Delete.
  • If you were a young child who wasn't familiar with Stephen Hawking, Professor Hawk's appearance and robotic voice in "Golden Diskette" was very bizarre and unsettling. Keep.
  • Dexter's invention in "Garage Sale". The sounds when its beam hits something are very Squicky and unsettling, and that's just when it mutates objects. The mutation ray zaps Dexter in the end, turning him agonizingly into a hideous tentacled creature in a rather drawn-out and thankfully off-screen process. Keep.
  • In "Dexter's Library" while the ending has a chuckle let's not forget what happens once Dexter is in charge. He sends his robots out and has them enforce rules like no finger tapping, sneezing, or eye blinking. What do those robots do to the kids that do this? Why kill them by teleporting them into a garbage disposal to be chopped up of course! Fridge Horror. Delete.
  • "Photo Finish" is, for the most part, a harmless James Bond parody... except for the villain, Red-Eye. Now, his actions aren't quite evil enough to put him under Vile Villain, Saccharine Show, but his design is one big unadulterated dose of Eye Scream; his cyborg eye looking like a big red sore is bad enough, but the episode goes out of its way to show it's attached to a huge metal spike that he jams into an empty socket every morning, complete with a loud squish. The episode showing said jamming from behind, rather than functioning as a Gory Discretion Shot, actually makes it feel gorier. Keep.

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#1337: Jun 24th 2019 at 4:37:06 PM

Gotta mention this before I forget:

NightmareFuel.Squirrel Boy.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#1338: Jun 24th 2019 at 11:59:11 PM

Sorry for double posting, but should we take another look at NightmareFuel.Jon Tron? Someone at Image Pickin' asked if the page is even legal because most of it is played for laughs; I responded that moments clearly different from the usual tone or style of the show with emphasis on their creepy factor can definitely be Nightmare Fuel, but that other moments are definitely just Black Comedy.

So, it stands to reason that we should probably go through and weed out the examples that really are just funny moments with some dark aspects, rather than scary moments with some comedic aspects.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#1339: Jun 25th 2019 at 3:07:58 AM

Legal? I didn't know TV Tropes has laws now.

Better watch those edits, then. Don't want to go to trope jail, after all. grin

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
Willbyr Hi (Y2K) Relationship Status: With my statistically significant other
Hi
#1340: Jun 25th 2019 at 6:40:35 AM

[up] WE GON' THROW YA IN THE POKEY! *rapid clicking on Restrain screen*

Now that that's out of my system - as a not-quite-formal request, if a NF page comes up in Image Pickin', I'd like for it to be bumped to the head of the line for consideration in this thread as the resolution of such threads will likely hinge on whether or not the example depicted by the pic is even valid.

Edited by Willbyr on Jun 25th 2019 at 8:40:49 AM

Zuxtron Berserk Button: misusing Nightmare Fuel from Node 03 (On A Trope Odyssey)
#1341: Jun 25th 2019 at 6:52:28 AM

Being Played for Laughs doesn't necessarily mean that something automatically can't be Nightmare Fuel. Even if it was meant to be funny, it can still end up becoming Accidental Nightmare Fuel.

But since JonTron is, to my knowledge, made for a teenage/adult audience, I'm fairly certain that very few if any of his viewers would actually feel disturbed or have actual nightmares about his videos. They should be mature enough to understand that it's all just a joke, and laugh it off.

WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#1342: Jun 25th 2019 at 7:14:02 AM

[up] That's why I mentioned the fact that there are some moments that may be intended to be funny, but also stand out as being pretty dang creepy. Moments that don't fit the tone and can be jarring enough to at least be unsettling.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
costanton11 Since: Mar, 2016
#1343: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:03:27 AM

Any valid entries on the aforementioned Nostalgia Critic page?

GiantCicada from Washington Since: Jun, 2019
#1344: Jun 26th 2019 at 9:34:55 PM

I noticed the Nightmare Fuel page for Spore has a lot of examples that aren't very nightmarish and are more Fridge Horror, Video Game Cruelty Potential, or just not very scary. I went ahead and removed these examples:

    Spore 
  • Creatures with the Bard Archetype are meant to be fun-loving party-goers. Sounds awesome, right? Then you read the Blocks of Chance, which contain gems like these:
    "There is no purpose. There is no value. There is no point. Life is ridiculous."
    "The universe is one big joke, and the joke is on us."
    "The best we can hope for is entertainment. We'll get along as long as you provide amusement - fighting our wars for us, fixing our worlds, looking for meaning where there is none, and groveling in the dirt to fetch us plants. So keep it up! Just remember that we're laughing all the time."
    • Let that sink in. Where the Scrolls of Harmony, the Scrolls of Faith, and the Books of Science contain deep musings on the meaning of life while the Scrolls of Order, the Tablets of Prosperity, the Stones of Force, and the Stones of Life contain societal blueprints, the Blocks of Chance contain despairing nihilism and playground jokes.
    • The first and third blocks in the set seem to imply their search for the meaning of life made them Go Mad from the Revelation. Make of that what you will.
    • And then there's their dialogue... (This is Fridge Horror and isn't presented as scary in-game.)
  • What you can become, late-game, as a militaristic race. Just imagine it from your victim's point of view: your leaders are cowering in their capital, watching as their planets lose contact one by one. They throw every ship and resource they can trying to stop whatever is destroying their worlds- until the last world between them and the empty patch where their empire was disappears. Then, a single ship burns into the atmosphere, flies to the nearest city, and destroys it within seconds. Then, it moves to the next nearest, and does the same. And it just keeps destroying everything while you're pleading with it and trying to negotiate surrender, but it hears your pleas of surrender and laughs in your face. Then, when it hovers over the last city in your entire empire, all you and what's left of your species can do is look up and watch as it drops that final anti-matter bomb. All because you had blue spice on your homeworld.
    • And it gets better (worse?), think about how your home planet reacts to everything you do out in the galaxy? They simply let you do whatever you want and do not complain even a little about it. So for those ships running amok in the galaxy destroying everything? They are doing it with the full support (or worse, the complete apathy) of their leaders in whatever government is in place for them.
    • De-terraforming a planet doesn't stop at just turning the planet uninhabitable. Depending on whether you're screwing with the planet's temperature or atmosphere (or both), you're either making everyone and everything on the surface choke or burn/freeze to death, completely out of nowhere. It's basically a slightly slower Gravitation Wave that doesn't violate the Galactic Code for Spode knows what reason.
    • There's also the Fanatical Frenzy superweapon that converts an entire system "peacefully" not just into a new part of your empire, but into your species as well.
    • Similarly, if you are a Scientist race fighting against a Warrior race that demanded one too many tributes. You then proceed to conquer their planets one by one....until you get to their homeworld and rather than conquer it, you decide to wipe their great capital to the ground using the Gravitation Wave. There's a reason these two Superpowers are against the Galactic Code.
    • Even worse when you realize that the enemy you are sending everything at is only a single ship piloted by a captain that was only recently hired...
    • And the cherry on top? This nameless avatar of armageddon has a Grox ship flying alongside him. If there was any hope of talking this maniac down, it just died: anyone able to befriend the Grox is surely just as bad as they are. (Pretty sure this is all either Fridge Horror or Video Game Cruelty Potential.)
    • Mishandle a Zealot or Warrior empire and this could be your empire's fate (minus the Grox).
  • Imagine for a second, you are a member of a perfectly peaceful race of herbivores, enjoying your days eating fruit and breeding with lady herbivores. before you have the chance to react a group of carnivores appear out of thin air (sneak skill) and mercilessly slay and devour YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES. Just. Because. They. Could... yeah.
    • Then further imagine that the monstrous carnivores were the player character committing genocide because of the dusty old skeleton you found earlier. (Pretty much everything here is Video Game Cruelty Potential and isn't scary in-game.)
  • Imagine this: You're a creature that just crawled out of the primordial ooze. All around you are some horrific eldritch abominations. The more scary ones actually being incredibly docile... And then come the 50 foot killer potatoes. (the vast majority of the aliens you can find in Spore are cartoonish and not at all scary.)
  • The Proboscis mouth in cell stage. It literally allows you to suck the insides out of other cells. (I don't see how a proboscis is scary in a game about aliens.)
  • The angry face icon in the Space Stage which indicates that your standing with a rival empire has decreased. While it may be narm to some, it can be a bit startling as it's large, red, and rises up out of the affected area as a sound akin to an inflating balloon plays.
    • Sometimes, the game will glitch and give the empire a "You refused us tribute" negative modifier, with the accompanying red face, completely at random. Doubly startling if it's an archetype that doesn't usually demand tribute(like a Diplomat), leaving you wondering what the heck you did to piss them off. (Not scary at all.)
  • The Grox. They initially appear kind of adorable, but Spode help you if you make them mad... Which you already do by existing. Their ships are practically indestructible with tons of weapons, they appear in packs of twenty, and there are enough to destroy all of your colonies at once.
    • It really needs to be emphasized the Grox are not just hostile - they are Absolute Xenophobes whose entire culture is built on the idea that any other sentient species are irredeemably inferior. They can survive only on T0 planets and are said to be "too toxic for your Cargo Hold" just like how the unnatural representation of pure evil cannot exist among good. Every single one of them is an omnicidal sociopath, to the point where peace with the other races and equality is foreign and impossible to their mindset. There is a reason they are considered ultimate evil by the rest of the galaxy.note 
    • The worst part is that any war with the Grox is a Forever War unless you eliminate them. Every other empire can be defeated without being destroyed by either giving them a large peace offering or destroying so many colonies that they beg for mercy. Neither option is available for the Grox; once they're angered enough to declare war, they will not rest until every last member of your species is dead. They will never ask for mercy, and you don't even get the option to make a peace offering. And their empire is so massive that even dedicated players can take a month to destroy them all, all while having to backtrack to colonies closest to the core to defend them, since not even a T3 colony with all turret slots filled and an Uber Turret can stave off a Grox invasion. The kicker is that it's stupidly easy for to provoke them into declaring war—when you first encounter them, they're already at -70 relation bonus(-60 with Gracious Greeter), whereas -71 is what's needed for a race to declare war. If you accidentally destroy one of their ships on the way out because you forgot(or didn't think) to deactivate your Auto Turret, there will be no stopping them from hunting you down.
    • When you are allied with the Grox, you can fly right above one of their cities to listen to their anthem... if we can call it that, anyway, as it is comprised of nothing but a strange droning sound with static, bizarre guitar riffs and various random sounds before a disturbingly human-sounding off-key baritone singer makes his cue. Have a listen here. (I'll leave the anthem as a stand-alone example. The rest of this is more about the Grox being threatening than scary. The Grox are pretty cute and cartoony so it's hard to take them that seriously.)
  • If you're a scientist race, and you have enough time and patience, you can REALLY be a Mad Scientist.
    • Step 1: Find an alien planet in creature/tribal stage and monolith them into civilization
    • Step 2: Find a planet with the same T-Score and use the Creature tweaker to turn a random creature into a monstrosity covered in weapons and abduct one/as many as possible.
    • Step 3: Evolve the civilization to space stage and get thanked by them
    • Step 4: put the creature you tweaked down and supersize it
    • Step 5: Sit back and watch the results For Science!! If the uplifted race wins wipe them out with your scientist super power, if your epic mutant wins kill it and wipe them out nonetheless. (This is Video Game Cruelty Potential and not scary.)

Honestly, Spore is cartoony enough that it might not be worth having its own Nightmare Fuel page. Someone else with more editing experience than me can probably cut more from that page.

Edited by GiantCicada on Jun 26th 2019 at 9:38:21 AM

Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#1345: Jun 27th 2019 at 2:32:03 AM

I don't know, you can certainly create nightmarish creatures in Spore, certainly with the parts pack they released later, which explicitly focusses on "cute and creepy". A few of the standard skins are stitched together parts and one looking like raw meat with purple veins. I made a monster with the new parts, and did the test drive mode, and even the acts that were supposed to be cute or funny ended up looking pretty threatening, what with the claws and dragon face and growls.

But I agree most of that page is fridge horror or video game cruelty potential.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
NKgamer Since: Jan, 2001
#1346: Jun 27th 2019 at 6:52:37 PM

Um sorry for being late but the one dexter's lab example for the library episode does NOT go under fridge horror as everything was shown ON SCREEN. If it was fridge we wouldn't have seen what happened. So how is that fridge horror?

Edited by NKgamer on Jun 27th 2019 at 6:54:06 AM

AlleyOop Since: Oct, 2010
#1347: Jun 27th 2019 at 7:38:56 PM

My bad. Likely because it was a Savino episode, I didn't watch it.

KingofNightmares Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#1348: Jun 27th 2019 at 10:35:05 PM

I cut this from The Lion King

  • Zazu manages to give the audience a minor Jump Scare when he reaches Simba and Nala at the Elephant Graveyard. Just as Simba and Nala are about to check out an elephant corpse, Zazu flies out of nowhere and says "Wrong!". Sure the fact it is just Zazu, it's not really scary,but his sudden appearance and the successful timing of the Scare Chord with his wing flap can cause a brief "Oh jeez" moment on the first time around.

It says it's not really scary. There's probably more that needs to be cleaned up in that page, but this example was the worst

"It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times?"
Redmess Redmess from Netherlands Since: Feb, 2014
Redmess
#1349: Jun 28th 2019 at 3:47:41 AM

A jump scare is not nightmare fuel, I think.

Hope shines brightest in the darkest times
KingofNightmares Since: Aug, 2016 Relationship Status: Above such petty unnecessities
#1350: Jun 28th 2019 at 5:17:57 AM

These examples are most likely cut-worthy as well

  • When Zazu has been captured by the Hyenas, who like to play with their food...two words: "Birdie Boiler". It's a Played for Laughs scene, but to anyone who's ever been bullied, it can come across as pretty unnerving.
Pretty unnerving as in "not very unnerving"

Complete and utter Zero-Context Example

  • Though it ended up working out just fine, the fierce fight between Simba and Nala in the jungle before they recognize each other has multiple instances of this.
    • The most basic is how feral the two lions look. Nala is almost unrecognizable when she first appears and is possibly starving, and Simba, despite living in comfort for years, manages to look just as ferocious to protect his friends.
    • The appearance of a new lion in their forest is one for Timon and Pumbaa. They have spent years there without fear in a predator-free-environment, when all of a sudden one of the fiercest predators shows up out of nowhere. If they hadn't of taken Simba in all those years ago they would have been dead.
    • The fight between Simba and Nala could have been this if things had gone even a little bit different.
      • For Nala, she was just trying to hunt to survive due to possible starvation. True she was hunting two sentient beings, but to her it is just the circle of life. When another lion she doesn't recognize shows up, she visibly panics for a moment before he pounces violently on her and pins her to the ground, at which point she starts fighting back. She probably thought he was hunting Timon and Pumbaa too and was challenging her for them. During the fight she is shown clawing at Simba’s mane and face, as if she is trying to blind him, and finally slams him to the ground to finish him. The fierce look Nala gives Simba after she beats him and has him pinned shows that she was possibly willing to kill one of her own kind just to get some food, and she only softens her look when Simba recognizes her due to her pinning technique.
    • If Simba hadn't recognized Nala in that fight, one of two equally bad things could have happened. Either, Nala would have killed her childhood friend without realizing who he was and proceeded to eat Timon and Pumbaa, leaving nobody to stop Scar and return peace to the Pride Lands, or Simba would have killed Nala in self-defence and he would have never learned about what Scar was doing to his home, and nobody else would ever be able to tell him.
First off, it admits that it ends up fine, also the "if this had happened" stuff is Fridge Horror

  • "Oh, Simba, you're in trouble again. But this time Daddy isn't here to save you... and now EVERYONE KNOWS WHY!!"
The main Nightmare Fuel page says that quotes on their own are not NF

  • Right at the start of the final battle, while Simba tosses a few hyenas around, one gets the jump on him and goes for his throat. If it weren't for Rafiki showing up at that moment, it's possible that hyena would've torn Simba's throat out.
"possible that hyena would've." WOULD'VE

  • It's a brief moment, but during the shot where some of the hyenas are running away, one can see Simba and a lioness shoving and knocking hyenas into the fire. That is right: Simba and Nala knocked several hyenas off a cliff and presumably killing them. Beware the Nice Ones, indeed. Also shows how serious this film is, since this is the first time that we see a Disney animated hero killing someone aside from the main villain intentionally.
Why does this example feel so badly written to me? Why does the last part feel like gushing?

"It was the best of times, it was the BLURST of times?"

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